u 


1^.: 


V... 


AIM  TO  FREEDO 


S,0.  PollocR 
M,  HruisKevsiii^ 
O.  Hoetzsch, 


|>ubti8hecli    by   the    Ukrainian     Nfttjowo 

end   t}t,«    *^  ii'! ',"n tan    NfttJonal    Vni-* 
-■i.  -••     York 


UKRAINE'S 
CLAIM  TO  FREEDOM 

AN  APPEAL  FOR  JUSTICE 
ON    BEHALF    OF     THIRTY-FIVE     MILLIONS 

articles  by 

Edwin  Bjorkman,  Simon  0.  Pollock, 

Prof.  M.  Hrushevsky,  Prof.  0.  Hoetzsch, 

AND  others 


PUBIJSHED   BY  THK   UKRAINIAN   NATIONAI,  ASSOCIATION 
AND   THK   RUTHBNIAN   NaTIONAI,   UNION 

New  York 
1915 


T 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter 

Preface    

I.     The  Cry  of  Ukraine 

Edwin  Bjorkman. 


ERRATA. 

V 

ll?e    21. 

line  19  For  they  read  the. 

,,     45. 

,,       3 

For  Ustyalov  read  Ustryalov. 

,,      48. 

,,     21 

For  etsablished  read  established. 

,,     55, 

.,     37 

The  last  sentence    should   read:    "While    the    Ukrai- 
nian schools  are  exclusively  confined  to  one   or   two 
classes,     which    is    an    inferior    type    of   school,    the 
Poles  have  secondary  schools,    composed   of   no   less 
than  four  classes." 

5S, 

..     19 

For  Ukrainians  read  Ukrainian. 

5.S, 

..     28 

For  emancipation,    etc.    read    "upon    the    Ukrainians 
and  deprives  them  of  all  political  independence." 

5.S, 

,.     32 

For  form  read  from. 

!,     61. 

..     17 

For  the  read  time. 

,,     68, 

,-     11 

For  Galisian  read  Galician. 

.,     69. 

,,       4 

For  (a  florin  is  20  centsi    read  fa  florin  is  40  cents  I. 

,,     69, 

,,     29 

"paid  between",   etc.   omit  this  line. 

, ,    «o. 

.,     39 

For  local  Diet,  etc.  read:    "Galician  representation." 

,.   124, 

.,       7 

For  was  read  has  been. 

E. 


Page 

6 
9 

28 

41 

53 

60 

65 

86 
92 

99 


X.     Milukoff's  Defense  of  Ukrainian  Home  Rule  106 

XI.    Russia's  Expansion  Towards  Galicia 109 

XII.     The  Czar's  Rule  in  Galicia,  1914 114 

Conclusion    120 

Appendix    121 

Maps. 


"HV 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  Page 

Preface    6 

I.     The  Cry  of  Ukraine 9 

Edwin  Bjorkman. 
II.     The  Ukrainian  Revival 28 

Prof.  M.  Hrushevsky. 

III.  The  End  of  the  Idea  of  Polish  Empire 41 

Carl  Leuthner. 

IV.  Position  of  the  Ukrainians  in  Galigia 53 

Yaroslav  Fedortchuk. 

V.     Ukrainian  Aspirations  in  Austria 60 

Dr.  Longin  Tzegelsky. 

VI.     The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy 65 

Simon  0.  Pollock. 

VII.     A  Galician  Governor 86 

VIII.     The  Ukrainian  Movement  in  Russia 92 

Prof.  Otto  Hoetzsch. 
IX.     The  Political  Parties  in  Russian  Ukraine..       99 

W.  Doroschenko. 
X.     Milukoff's  Defense  of  Ukrainian  Home  Rule     106 

XI.     Russia's  Expansion  Towards  Galicia 109 

XII.     The  Czar's  Rule  in  Galicia,  1914 .__     114 

Conclusion    120 

Appendix    121 

Maps. 


PREFACE. 

The  European  War  has  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
civilized  world  the  submerged  nationalities  and  their 
struggles  for  independence.  Terms  of  peace  have  been 
mentioned,  from  time  to  time,  since  the  war  began,  and 
it  seems  to  be  the  universal  sentiment  that  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  such  terms,  which  sooner  or  later  must  take 
place,  the  rights  of  these  nationalities  will  form  an  im- 
portant part  and  create  a  new  and  a  great  historical  is- 
sue. While  little  has  been  forcibly  advanced  with  re- 
gard to  the  permanent  conquest  of  new  territories,  pro- 
mises of  independence  to  various  nationalities  have  been 
repeatedly  held  out. 

This  situation  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
movements  for  national  and  political  independence  in  be- 
half of  these  submerged  nationalities  had  been  growing 
prior  to  the  war,  and  had  become  factors  in  the  internal 
affairs  of  the  great  nations  of  Europe. 

The  cry  for  autonomy  or  independence  had  mostly  been 
heard  from  Russia,  Austria-Hungary  and  the  Balkan 
Peninsula,  and  particularly  from  the  Slavonic  national- 
ities. 

However,  the  struggles  of  one  nationality,  which 
numbers  35,000,000,  and  which  inhabits  South  Russia 
and  Eastern  Austria,  have  been  particularly  bitter.  These 
are  the  Ukrainians,  in  Austria  known  as  "Ruthenians", 
in  Russia  as  "Little  Russians". 

In  Russia  the  Ukrainians  are  not  only  subject  to  the 
general  conditions  prevailing  in  the  country,  but  they 
have  also  been  made  the  target  of  special   restrictions. 


6  Ukraine's  Claim   to   Freedom 

There,  while  following  their  national  aspirations  for 
autonomy  and  independence,  they  have  played  an  im- 
portant role  in  the  general  movements  for  the  democrati- 
zation of  the  Russian  Empire,  and  have  supplied  a  sub- 
stantial number  of  recruits  to  Liberal  movements. 

In  Austria,  however,  having  in  theory  the  rights 
which  the  Constitution  of  1867  gave  to  the  nine  national- 
ities of  the  Empire,  and  being  entitled  to  equality  before 
the  law,  de  facto,  the  Ukrainians,  on  the  one  hand,  find 
themselves  to  a  great  degree  deprived  of  the  practical 
exercise  of  these  rights,  and  on  the  other  hand,  have  be- 
come the  actual  slaves  of  a  nobility  alien  to  them  in  origin, 
historical  traditions,  and  future  aspirations. 

We  refer  to  the  Polish  nobility  who,  by  a  coincidence 
of  historical  events,  have  intrenched  themselves  in  East- 
em  Galicia,  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  continue  as  of 
yore,  with  privileges  and  monopolies,  their  existence  as 
a  feudal  aristocracy. 

Thus  we  see,  in  the  beginning  of  the  20th  century,  a 
state  of  affairs  entirely  foreign  to  modern  ideas. 

The  predominance  of  this  aristocracy  has  resulted  in 
the  absolute  control  of  all  organs  of  public  life,  as  well 
as  of  all  sources  of  information.  It  is  because  of  this 
that  the  cry  of  Ukraine  and  its  dramatic  struggles  have 
not  reached  the  ear  of  the  world. 

Within  the  last  fifteen  years,  however,  the  revival  of 
the  national  spirit  among  the  Ukrainians  has  engendered 
the  movement  for  independence  and  created  a  literature 
capable  of  supplying  full  information  about  the  conditions 
under  which  they  live.  It  is  the  object  of  those  respon- 
sible for  the  following  pages  to  place  before  the  American 
people  such  data  as  may  be  found  among  the  authorities 
on  this  subject  in  different  languages  and  countries. 

The  various  organizations  of  Ukrainians  in  the  United 
States,  composed  of  naturalized  American  citizens  and  of 
men  and  women  not  yet  citizens,  men  and  women  who  are 
proud  of  their  adopted  country,  cannot  fail  to  heed  the 


Preface  7 

plea  of  their  enslaved  motherland  for  aid.  They  consider 
it  their  duty  to  share  with  the  American  people  their 
knowledge  of  conditions  in  the  land  of  their  birth,  so  that 
at  the  proper  time  the  voice  of  American  opinion' may  be 
heard  in  behalf  of  Ukraine. 

Presenting  the  cause  of  their  nationality  in  Europe— 
in  Austria  and  in  Russia— the  publishers  trust  that  they 
will  also  render  a  service  to  the  cause  of  the  liberation 
of  other  oppressed  nationalities  in  Europe. 

The  Ukrainians  have  no  quarrel  with  the  Poles  as  a 
nation,  but  they  oppose  the  rule  of  a  foreign  aristocracy 
over  them.  Whether  in  Austria-Hungary  or  in  Russia, 
they  seek  equality  in  citizenship  and  an  independent 
Ukrainian  state  in  the  land  of  their  birth. 

Ukrainian  National  Association, 

Jersey  City,   N.  J. 

Ruthenian  National  Union, 

Scran  ton,  Pa. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  CRY  OF  UKRAINE 


BY 


EDWIN  BJoRKMAN 


[Edwin  Bjorkman;  born  at  Stockholm,  Sweden,  1866;  formerly  on 
editorial  staff.  New  York  Evening  Post  and  World's  Work;  editor, 
Modern  Drama  series,  1912.  Author:  Is  There  Anything  New 
Under  the  Sun?  1911;  Gleams,  1912;  Voices  of  To-morrow, 
1913.  Translator  of  "Plays"  by  Strindberg,  Bjornson,  and 
Bergstrom.] 


"There  never  has  been  and  never  will  be  a  Ukrainian 
language  or  nationality,"  a  Russian  minister  of  state  de- 
clared in  4863.  Yet  there  are  to-day  35,000,000  people 
who  passionately  contest  that  assertion  and  claim  the  right 
to  exist  as  a  separate  racial  and  social  group.  And  to-day, 
when  the  great  war  seems  to  have  thrown  all  the  races  of 
the  earth  into  the  melting  pot,  the  Ukrainians  are  strug- 
gling as  never  before  to  make  the  rest  of  the  world  aware 
not  only  of  their  existence,  but  of  their  plight. 

For  centuries  the  Ukrainian  has  been  the  step-child  of 
Europe,  his  very  presence  on  this  globe  being  overlooked 
or  ignored.  For  centuries  he  has  been  oppressed  and  ex- 
ploited by  Pole  and  Magyar  and  Russian.  For  centuries 
he  has  been  denied  not  only  self-government,  but  the  use 
of  his  native  tongue.     For  centuries  he  has  been  kept  poor 


10  Ukraine's  Claim   to   Freedom 

and  ignorant,  lest  he  grow  strong  enough  to  throw  off 
the  masters  ruling  him  without  his  own  consent.  For  cen- 
turies he  has  been  told  that  his  one  chance  of  life  lay  in 
becoming  a  Russian  or  a  Pole.  For  centuries  he  has  been 
suffering  a  pressure  in  comparison  with  which  that  ex- 
erted against  Poles  or  Alsatians  or  the  Danes  of  Schleswig 
may  be  reckoned  as  nothing.  And  yet  he  has  neither  been 
exterminated  nor  assimilated. 

There  is  an  old  Arab  proverb  saying  that  "a  well-loved 
child  has  many  names."  But  when  the  Ukrainian  is 
known  under  half-a-dozen  names,  it  means  chiefly  that  his 
masters  will  not  grant  him  the  only  one  he  cares  for.  In 
Russia  he  is  known  as  a  Little  Russian  or  Maloross  after 
the  region — once  the  Sarmatia  of  the  Ancients — where  he 
has  been  at  home  since  the  early  centuries  of  this  era. 
In  Austria  and  Hungary  he  is  called  a  Ruthenian  or  Rus- 
niak,  both  words  being  alternate  forms  of  Russian.  Col- 
loquially he  is  named  a  khokhol,  which  means  "one  with 
hair  on  the  top  of  his  head."  The  word  harks  back  to 
the  days  when  the  untamed  Ukrainian  Cossacks  used  to 
shave  their  heads  in  the  manner  of  some  of  our  own 
Indians,  leaving  only  a  scalp  lock  at  the  top.  Should  you 
call  him  a  Cossack,  he  will  not  be  displeased,  for,  strange 
as  it  may  seem  now,  it  was  the  peaceful  population  of  the 
rich  "black  belt"  that  gave  birth  to  the  first  Cossack  orga- 
nization. But  the  name  he  prefers  to  all  others  is  that 
of  Ukrainian. 

Ukraine  means  "borderland."  The  name  was  first  ap- 
plied to  the  steppes  along  the  southern  Polish  frontier, 
where  the  Tartar  was  a  constant  menace.  Large  numbers 
of  peasants  fled  to  these  steppes  to  escape  the  tyranny  of 
Polish  pans  or  Russian  boyars,  and  there  they  began  to 
form  nomadic  organizations  with  a  minimum  of  discip- 
line. From  their  hostile  neighbors,  the  Tartars,  they 
borrowed  the  name  of  kazak,  which  comes  from  the  Tur- 
kish qussaq  and  means  adventurer  or  free-booter.  As 
they   grew   in   numbers   and   became   hardened   by   their 


The   Cry   of   Ukraine  H 

strenuous  life,  their  former  masters  conceived  the  idea  of 
granting  them  land  and  a  large  degree  of  self-government 
under  elected  hetmans,  on  the  condition  that  they  should 
furnish  an  every-ready  force  of  defense  against  the  ma- 
rauding Tartar.  Both  land  and  freedom  were  taken  back 
long  ago,  the  Tartar  menace  having  disappeared,  but  the 
man  of  the  old  frontiers  still  dreams  of  the  bygone  days 
of  free  fighting.  Still  he  likes  to  call  himself  a  Ukrainian, 
and  still  he  insists  on  considering  himself  a  man  having 
a  race,  a  language,  a  history,  and  a  future  of  his  own. 

One  of  the  main  reasons  why  all  elTorts  at  assimilation 
have  proved  futile,  must  probably  be  sought  in  the  nume- 
rousness  of  the  Ukrainian  people.  Exact  figures  are  hard 
to  find,  as  the  falsifying  of  census  reports  has  been  one  of 
the  favorite  methods  employed  by  the  oppressors.  Never- 
theless official  figures  have  had  to  admit  that,  as  far  back 
as  1897,  there  were  22,000,000  Ukrainians  in  Russia  alone. 
It  seems  safe  to  place  their  total  present  numbers  in  all 
the  world  at  35,000,000,  distributed  as  follows:  Southern 
Russia,  28,000,000 ;  the  rest  of  European  and  Asiatic  Rus- 
sia, 2,000,000;  Galicia,  3,500,000;  Hungary,  500,000;  Buko- 
vina,  400,000;  the  United  States,  500,000;  Canada,  300,- 
000;  South  America,  50,000. 

The  European  territory  where  the  Ukrainians  constitute 
an  overwhelming  majority  or  a  considerable  percentage  of 
the  population  is  larger  than  Germany  and  twice  as  large 
as  France.  It  is  divided  between  three  powers — Russia, 
Austria,  and  Hungary — and  stretches  from  the  Carpathians 
to  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caucasus.  Through  the  middle 
of  it  runs  the  river  Dniper  like  a  spinal  cord.  It  embraces 
the  eastern  two-thirds  of  Galicia  and  the  entire  govern- 
ments of  Podolia,  Volhynia,  Kiev,  Chernigov,  Poltava  and 
Kharkov  in  Russia.  In  these  districts  the  Ukrainians  form 
70%  or  more  of  the  population,  while  they  average  about 
40%  in  northwestern  Bukovina,  in  four  of  the  Carpathian 
districts  of  Hungary,  and  in  several  Russian  governments. 
They  have  a  large  colony  by  the  river  Kuban  in  the  Cau- 


12  Ukraine's   Claim   xo   Freedom 

casus,  where  the  Zaporogian  Cossacks  of  Byron's  "Mazep- 
pa"  were  finally  permitted  to  settle,  after  Catharine  II  had 
rooted  them  out  of  their  stronghold  on  an  island  in  the 
Dniper. 

The  original  and  principal  home  regions  of  the  Ukrai- 
nians are  among  the  richest  known  to  man.  Since  the 
days  of  ancient  Greece,  they  have  been  one  of  the  world's 
main  granaries.  They  comprise  the  better  part  of  that 
black-earth  belt  ( chornozem) ,  which  reaches  from  the 
foot-hills  of  the  Carpathians  to  the  Ural  Mountains.  The 
peculiar  color  and  almost  unequalled  fertility  of  its  soil  are 
caused  by  the  presence  in  its  upper  layers  of  an  unusually 
large  proportion — from  five  to  seventeen  per  cent.— of  hu- 
mus, or  decaying  vegetable  matter.  As  the  climate  is 
milder,  too,  the  Ukrainians  are  able  to  harvest  immense 
annual  crops  of  every  sort  of  grain,  of  Indian  corn  and 
beet-root,  of  water-melons  and  pumpkins,  of  tobacco  and 
grapes.  And  their  territory  is  also  rich  in  mineral  re- 
sources. Left  to  themselves,  they  would  be  wealthy  as 
Iowa  farmers.  Instead  they  are  poor — beyond  description 
in  some  districts — and  getting  poorer  every  year. 

Official  Russia  has  sedulously  fostered  the  impression 
that,  no  matter  how  many  races  or  nationalities  may  be 
represented  within  the  empire,  the  Russians  properly  so- 
called  form  a  homogeneous  ethnic  and  lingual  group. 
This,  however,  is  merely  a  political  theory,  developed  to 
serve  the  centralizing  and  levelling  process  which,  for  good 
or  ill,  has  made  Russia  what  it  is  to-day.  The  fact  is 
that  European  Russia  to-day,  as  always,  holds  three  ethni- 
cally distinct  groups  of  Eastern  Slavs,  each  one  of  which 
has  a  language  of  its  own.  These  groups  are  known  as 
Great  Russians  (Vyelikorossi),  Little  Russians  (Malo- 
rossi),  and  White  Russians  (Byelorossi). 

The  White  Russians,  of  whom  there  are  only  about 
6,000,000,  hold  an  intermediate  position.  Historically 
they  belong  rather  to  the  Little  Russians,  Ethnically  and 
lingually  they  are  nearer  to  the  Great  Russians.     Their 


The  Cry   of  Ukraine  13 

language  may  properly  be  defined  as  a  dialect  of  Great 
Russian.  They  live  along  the  western  border,  where 
they  adjoin  Lithuanians  and  Poles.  So  far  they  have  not 
created  any  burning  question  of  their  own,  but  this  may 
come. 

"The  Little  Russians  differ  from  the  Great  Russians  not 
only  in  language  but  in  physical  type,  customs,  domestic 
architecture  and  folk-lore,"  says  the  Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nica.  The  physical  differences  are  marked  enough  to  be 
noted  by  every  traveller.  The  Ukrainians  have  broader 
and  shorter  heads,  for  one  thing.  They  are  darker,  look- 
ing more  like  Serbs  than  Russians,  and  they  are  consider- 
ably taller,  although  they  don't  equal  the  short-set  Great 
Russians  in  muscular  strength.  An  English  writer,  W. 
Barnes  Steveni,  has  described  them  as  "bullet-headed  and 
bull-necked."  And  I  have  heard  it  said  that  the  late 
Prince  Bismarck,  though  sprung  from  a  northern  Slavic 
strain,  looked  the  typical  Little  Russian. 

The  psychological  differences  between  the  Ukrainians 
and  the  Great  Russians  are  equally  marked.  "They  seem 
to  surpass  the  Great  Russians  in  natural  intellect,  good 
taste  and  poetical  fancy,  but  they  are  less  practical,  solid 
and  persevering,"  writes  the  noted  French  geographer, 
Elisee  Reclus.  They  are  gayer  and  gentler  than  their 
brothers  to  the  northward.  Their  women  are  soft-voiced 
and  picturesquely  dressed.  Art  and  poetry,  music  and 
craftsmanship  have  always  been  at  home  among  them — 
in  so  far  as  their  rulers  have  peiTnitted.  They  love  the 
theatre.  Their  folk  melodies  are  admired  throughout  Rus- 
sia and  ought  to  be  known  everywhere.  "The  national 
poetry  of  few  languages  excels  that  of  the  Ukrainians  in 
energy  of  expression  and  depth  of  feeling,"  says  Reclus. 
They  are  good  workmen,  too,  and  great  gardeners.  Even 
a  very  poor  Ukrainian  home  looks  like  a  house  rather  than 
a  hut,  is  kept  scrupulously  clean,  contains  some  touch  of 
beauty,  and  possesses  a  garden  patch  that  yields  flowers 
as  well  as  vegetables. 


14  Ukraine's  Claim   to   Freedom 

Love  matches,  so  rare  among  the  Great  Russians,  are 
common  among  the  Ukrainians.  Their  whole  outlook  on 
life  is  democratic.  There  is  a  strain  of  the  nomad  in  most 
of  them,  and  they  are  likely  to  over-estimate  freedom  of 
movement  and  external  equality.  For  these  reasons  they 
are  not  as  good  organizers  or  colonizers  as  the  Great  Rus- 
sians, to  whom  autocratic  centralization  has  always  seem- 
ed an  inevitable  accompaniment  of  any  organization, 
whether  in  the  form  of  a  family  or  of  a  state.  There  is, 
nevertheless,  a  strong  tendency  toward  democracy  in  the 
Great  Russian,  too,  but  it  is  rather  communistic,  while  the 
same  tendency  in  the  Ukrainian  appears  to  be  individual- 
istic, with  a  strong  objection  to  any  kind  of  discipline 
except  in  cases  of  emergency.  The  old  Cossack  Hetmans 
used  to  be  as  absolute  in  war  as  they  were  powerless  in 
peace. 

When  we  turn  to  the  Ukrainian  tongue,  we  find  that  its 
position  as  an  independent  language — not  a  mere  dialect 
— was  officially  recognized  by  the  Imperial  Russian  Aca- 
demy of  Sciences  in  1905,  when  that  body,  after  a  most 
careful  study  of  every  question  involved,  recommended 
that  the  people  of  Little  Russia  be  granted  the  long  de- 
nied right  of  using  their  mother  tongue  for  educational, 
scientific,  social  and  artistic  purposes.  At  the  same  time 
the  myth  of  the  "Pan-Russian"  language,  of  which  Ukrai- 
nian had  been  declared  a  dialect,  was  unequivocally  de- 
nounced. When  analyzed,  Ukrainian  shows  radical  devia- 
tion from  the  Great  Russian,  both  in  grammar  and  voca- 
bulary. The  words  for  many  common  objects  or  actions 
are  totally  different.  Still  more  confusing  is  the  fact  that 
words  common  to  both  languages  frequently  have  different 
meanings.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  same  word  means 
"charming"  in  Ukrainian  and  "ugly"  in  Great  Russian. 
Consequently,  a  peasant  from  Poltava  or  Eastern  Galicia 
can  no  more  understand  a  man  from  Moscow  than  a  Pole 
or  a  Slovak.  In  fact,  Ukrainian  has  more  points  in  com- 
mon with  Serbian  than  with  any  other  Slavonic  language. 


The  Cry   of   Ukraine  15 

The  nature  of  the  differences  enumerated  above  sug- 
gests that  the  initial  point  of  divergence  from  a  common 
Slav  stock  must  be  placed  very  far  back  in  time.  It  cer- 
tainly ante-dates  the  return  of  the  Eastern  Slavs  from 
Central  Europe  to  their  present  territories,  whence  they 
had  been  driven  during  the  early  centuries  of  our  era — 
probably  by  Ugrian  and  Finnish  tribes.  Their  return 
was  gradual  and  followed  several  routes,  and  there  is  rea- 
son to  believe  that  Great  and  Little  Russians  represent 
separate  migratory  waves,  one  taking  a  northerly  and  the 
other  a  much  more  southerly  route. 

The  earliest  efforts  at  state  building  among  the  new 
settlers  were  made  by  Swedish  vikings,  who  first  estab- 
lished themselves  at  Novgorod  and  Kiev.  From  the  ninth 
to  the  eleventh  centuries,  innumerable  small  states  of  this 
kind  sprang  into  being,  all  of  which  formed  a  loose  con- 
federacy with  the  Grand  Duke  of  Kiev  at  its  head.  For 
several  centuries  Kiev  was  the  political  and  intellectual 
centre  of  Eastern  Slavdom,  representing  the  entire  terri- 
tory in  its  dealings  with  the  outside  world.  It  was  from 
Kiev  that  Christianity  spread  eastward  and  northward. 
And  to-day  Kiev  is  still  the  "holy  city,"  to  which  thou- 
sands make  pilgrimage  annually  from  all  over  Russia.  It 
is  also  called  "the  mother  of  Russian  cities." 

With  the  advent  of  Jenghiz  Khan's  Tartar  hordes,  the 
glory  and  power  of  Kiev  came  to  an  end.  The  city  was 
razed  in  1240,  and  the  fertile  plains  along  the  middle 
Dniper  were  laid  waste  and  depopulated.  The  southern 
Slavs  were  again  driven  westward,  where  independent 
principalities  remained  in  Galicia  and  Volhynia.  These 
regions  were  the  first  to  be  named  Little  Russia,  and  in 
1334  we  find  a  Duke  of  Halicz  and  Vladimir  proclaiming 
himself  "Lord  of  All  the  Little  Russians."  As  the  Tartar 
invasion  ebbed,  the  Slavs  flowed  back  once  more,  carrying 
the  new  name  of  their  country  with  them.  But  mean- 
while their  chance  of  ever  building  an  empire  of  their  own 
had  been  lost.     Poland  and  Lithuania  had  been  growing 


16  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

rapidly,  and  the  Grand  Dukes  of  Moscow  were  already 
laying  the  foundations  of  modern  Russia.  Galicia  soon 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Poland,  while  Volhynia  and  Podolia 
became  Lithuanian.  Then  (about  the  year  1400)  a  union 
was  formed  between  Lithuania  and  Poland,  and  Little 
Russia  became  a  part  of  that  Greater  Poland  which  for 
a  time  reached  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea. 

The  Lithuanians  made  Little  Russian  the  language  of 
their  court  and  of  their  public  administration.  The  Poles 
tried  to  force  not  only  their  language  but  their  religion  on 
all  the  peoples  subject  to  them.  They  were  Roman  Cath- 
olics, while  the  Lithuanians  and  the  Little  Russians  were 
members  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church.  The  two  reli- 
gions were  guaranteed  equal  standing  and  equal  rights, 
but  the  guarantee  was  disregarded  as  soon  as  this  could 
be  done  with  impunity.  The  process  of  polonisation  and 
romanisation  proved  an  utter  failure  with  the  mass  of  the 
people,  especially  in  Little  Russia.  But  it  succeeded  splen- 
didly with  the  land-owning  nobility,  who  found  themselves 
excluded  from  the  diets  unless  they  appeared  there  as  Po- 
lish-speaking Roman  Catholics.  To  this  day  the  nobility 
of  Little  Russia,  when  not  russified,  have  remained  Polish 
in  their  culture,  and  totally  foreign,  if  not  hostile,  to  the 
nationalistic  aspirations  of  the  bulk  of  the  people. 

For  a  brief  while,  however,  it  looked  as  if  the  course  of 
events  might  take  a  new  turn.  The  first  Cossack  organi- 
zations appeared  as  autonomous  communities  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  By  the  beginning  of  the  next  century 
they  had  increased  tremendously  in  numbers  and  power. 
At  that  time  already  they  were  able  to  raise  an  army  of 
60,000  men,  and  had  established  a  strongly  fortified  central 
camp,  the  sitch,  on  an  island  below  the  Dniper  Falls, 
whence  their  name  of  Zaporogians,  or  "men  living  below 
the  falls."  Among  them  the  religious  intolerance  of  the 
Poles  was  deeply  resented,  and  about  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century  an  unusually  able  and  popular  Het- 
man,  Bohdan  Khmelnitzky,  succeeded  in  arousing  all  Ukra- 


The   Cry   of   Ukraine  17 

ine  and  wresting  it  from  the  Poles.     But  he  found  his 
people  too  weak  to  stand  alone,  and  was  thus  forced  to 
arrange  a  union  with  Moscow  (in  1654).     The  step  proved 
fatal,  and  it  was  only  rendered  more  so  by  an  effort  to  un- 
do it.     In  spite  of  the  guarantee  of  autonomy  given  the 
Ukrainian  people,  the  rulers  of  the  rising  empire  in  the 
north  proceeded  quickly  to  make  a  mere  province  out  of 
their  new  territory.     A  Ukrainian  attempt  to  win  freedom 
through  an  alliance  with  Charles  XII  accomplished  no- 
thmg  but  the  reduction  of  Sweden  to  the  position  of  a 
mmor  power.     Before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Russia  was  absolute  master  of  the  main  parts  of  Ukraine 
After  the  final  division  of  Poland,  it  held  all  the  Little 
Russian    territory   except    Galicia,    which    had    fallen    to 
Austria. 

As  soon  as  the  Russians  had  the  upper  hand,  the  work 
of   russification    began.     The    native    tongue    was    prohi- 
bited, the  first  ukase  against  its  use  being  issued  in  1690 
The  schools  were  closed  or  forced  to  adopt  Russian      The 
indigenous  literature  was   destroyed  as   far  as   possible 
The  final  resistance  of  the  Cossacks  was  beaten  down  with 
force,  their  fortified  camp  was  destroyed,  their  autonomous 
institutions  were  abolished,  and  they  themselves  were  de- 
ported to  new  homes  in  the  Caucasus,  or  sent  northward 
to  die  by  thousands  in  the  swamps  in  Lake  Ladoga,  where 
the  new  capital  was  being  built.     The  magnates   were 
easily  coaxed  into  siding  with  the  new  rulers  by  grants  of 
additional  power  over  the  peasants.     The  Polish  policy  of 
creating  a  commercial  and  industrial  middle-class  of  im- 
ported Germans  and  Jews  was  continued,  thus  widening 
the  distance  between  the  mass  of  the  people  and  those  who 
should  have  been  their  leaders.     Many  scholars  were  lured 
or  driven  into  adopting  the  Russian  language  and  moving 
to  Moscow  or  the  new  capital  in  the  north.     In  this  con- 
nection we  must  remember  that  the  Ukrainians,  up  to  the 
very  last,  had  remained  ahead  of  their  conquerors  in  many 
matters  of  learning. 


2 


18  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

The  first  Little  Russian  version  of  the  Bible  was  printed 
in  1580-81,  while  no  Great  Russian  edition  appeared  un- 
til 1663.  While  we  know  of  sixty-seven  prints  in  Little 
Russian  dated  prior  to  1600,  we  have  records  of  only  six- 
teen such  prints  in  Great  Russian.  Normal  schools  were 
established  at  Leinberg  in  1586,  at  Kiev  and  Vilna  in  1588, 
and  so  on.  In  1631  the  school  at  Kiev  was  developed  into 
a  university  that  long  remained  the  finest  in  Russia.  A 
higher  school  of  any  kind  was  not  established  at  Moscow 
until  1679.  When  Peter  the  Great  began  his  enormous 
task  of  turning  Russia  into  a  civilized  country,  he  had  to 
draw  his  staff  of  Slav  assistants  almost  wholly  from  Ukra- 
ine. And  up  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  there 
was  hardly  to  be  found  a  single  Great  Russian  bishop  in 
any  part  of  the  country  (cf.  Harald  Hjarne  Oestanifran, 
Stockholm,  1905). 

During  a  brief  period  it  looked  as  if  the  national  aspira- 
tions of  the  Ukrainian  people  had  been  crushed  forever, 
and  as  if  their  complete  assimilation  would  only  be  a  ques- 
tion of  time.  But  that  period  was  miraculously  brief,  con- 
sidering the  force  and  the  nature  of  the  pressure  exerted. 
The  people,  which  a  friendly  observer  like  Reclus  has 
deemed  lacking  in  perseverance,  continued  to  cherish  their 
native  tongue  and  their  historical  inheritance  with  a  per- 
tinacity that  is  almost  without  parallel  in  history.  A  few 
comparisons  will  shed  light  on  the  wonderful  character  of 
their  struggle.  The  Finlanders,  whose  fight  for  national 
self-preservation  has  been  followed  with  intense  interest 
all  over  the  world,  were  left  unmolested  until  a  couple  of 
decades  ago.  The  efforts  to  turn  Poland  into  a  truly  Rus- 
sian territory  did  not  begin  in  earnest  until  after  the  rising 
of  1830.  But  the  Ukrainians  in  Russia  have  been  the  ob- 
ject of  a  merciless  process  of  russification  for  nearly  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  while  their  brothers  in  Galicia 
have  successfully  resisted  a  no  less  desperate  process  of 
polonisation  for  six  centuries. 


The  Cry   of   Ukraine  19 

The  stronghold  of  the  Zaporogians  was  destroyed  in 
1775.  Ivan  Kotliarevsky,  whose  travesty  of  the  "Aeneid" 
in  the  vernacular  may  be  regarded  as  the  starting-point  of 
the  neo-Ukrainian  movement,  was  already  born  at  that 
time.  At  first,  however,  the  assailed  nationalism  of  the 
Ukrainians  found  its  only  refuge  among  poor  and  ignorant 
peasants,  who  seemed  to  cling  to  it  out  of  blind  racial  in- 
stinct. From  those  layers  nearest  the  soil  it  spread  gradu- 
ally upwards,  gaining  in  clearness  and  intensity  as  it  took 
new  hold  of  the  intellectual  classes  that  had  once  deserted 
it.  The  earlier  movement  had  been  political.  But  the 
futility  of  resistance  along  such  lines  had  become  tho- 
roughly realized,  and  so  the  new  movement  took  a  literary 
and  spiritual  aspect  from  the  first.  It  was  a  question, 
above  all,  of  preventing  the  people  from  ever  losing  its 
sense  of  racial  distinction.  With  this  purpose  in  mind, 
the  songs  and  tales  and  legends  of  the  Ukrainians — their 
kazky  and  diimy — were  collected  and  studied.  The  lan- 
guage itself  was  analysed  and  assigned  its  proper  place 
in  relation  to  other  Slav  languages.  Scientific  societies 
were  founded  to  carry  on  the  new  work — and  were  gener- 
ally dissolved  as  soon  as  they  began  to  show  any  genuine 
activity.  Finally,  groping  efforts  were  made  to  build  up 
a  new  indigenous  literature,  and  not  without  success. 

At  the  very  heart  of  this  movement  we  find  the  pictur- 
esque and  pathetic  figure  of  the  poet-painter  Taras  Shev- 
chenko,  its  foremost  prophet,  martyr,  and  genius.  Born 
a  serf  in  the  government  of  Kiev,  he  was  of  age  before 
he  was  set  free — and  we  should  bear  in  mind  that  his  free- 
dom was  obtained  by  the  generosity  of  Russian  literary 
men  who  had  come  to  admire  his  gifts.  Yet  the  one  ob- 
ject of  his  glowing  poetry  was  to  make  his  own  people 
realize  and  cherish  their  essential  distinction  from  the  rul- 
ing branch  of  Eastern  Slavs.  For  this  purpose  he  pic- 
tured their  life  as  it  had  been  and  as  he  found  it.  His 
poems  were  spread  broadcast.  Then  the  inevitable  hap- 
pened.    He  was  arrested,  put  into  a  disciplinary  regiment 


20  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

and  sent  to  Orenburg  in  Siberia.  On  the  order  for  his  de- 
portation the  Czar  wrote  with  his  own  hand :  "Must  not 
be  allowed  to  paint  or  write."  Set  free  after  ten  years, 
he  returned  to  his  native  land  a  mere  ruin  of  his  former 
self,  within  which  hardly  a  spark  of  the  old  flame  could 
be  discerned.  Three  years  later,  in  1861,  he  died  at  the 
age  of  forty-seven.  But  his  work  had  been  done.  His 
name  had  already  become  the  rallying  cry  of  his  people. 
On  the  banks  of  his  beloved  Dniper  they  raised  a  simple 
monument  in  memory  of  his  faith,  his  martyrdom,  and  his 
achievement.  When,  a  year  ago,  the  Ukrainians  wished 
to  celebrate  the  centenary  of  his  birth,  the  Russian  govern- 
ment placed  a  military  guard  around  the  monument. 

Many  others  have  worked  in  the  spirit  of  Shevchenko — 
political  writers,  historians,  philologists,  folk-lorists,  poets. 
It  would  be  meaningless  to  mention  their  names  here. 
Some  suffered  as  did  Shevchenko;  some  grew  tired  and 
surrendered;  some  went  abroad  or  moved  into  Galicia  in 
order  to  be  able  to  continue  their  work.  Always  the  work 
went  on  and  gained  in  momentum — until  the  war  broke 
out.  But  our  concern  here  is  less  with  the  heroic  struggle 
of  those  men  than  with  the  conditions  under  and  against 
which  it  was  carried  out. 

The  first  ukase  aimed  at  the  Ukrainian  language  was 
issued  in  1690.  The  final  and  most  sweeping  one  appeared 
in  1876.  From  that  time  up  to  the  present,  conditions  in 
Ukraine  have  remained  practically  unaltered,  although 
certain  ameliorations  were  supposed  to  have  accompanied 
the  calling  of  the  first  Duma  in  1905. 

There  has  been  a  standing  prohibition,  minutely  en- 
forced, against  sermons,  lectures  or  addresses  of  any  kind 
in  Ukrainian.  The  same  prohibition  has  operated  against 
the  publishing  of  scientific  or  historical  works.  Such 
works  in  Russian,  but  dealing  with  Ukrainian  subjects, 
have  fared  but  little  better.  When,  in  1887,  a  Kiev  philo- 
logist submitted  the  manuscript  of  a  Little  Russian  gram- 
mar, the  censor  forebade  its  publication  on  the  ground 


The   Cry   of   Ukraine  21 

that  "it  would  be  impossible  to  print  the  grammar  of  a 
language  doomed  to  extinction,"  During  the  war  against 
Japan,  the  government  would  not  let  the  British  and  For- 
eign Bible  Association  distribute  New  Testaments  in  Little 
Russian  among  the  soldiers  speaking  no  other  language. 
Not  even  circulars  issued  by  the  health  authorities  to  in- 
struct the  people  how  to  meet  a  possible  cholera  epidemic 
have  been  allowed  to  appear  in  the  only  language  under- 
stood by  the  population  concerned.  An  exception  has  been 
supposed  to  exist  in  the  case  of  literature  designed  for  en- 
tertainment only,  but  it  has  been  largely  annulled  by  the 
activity  of  the  censor.  Theatrical  performances  in  Ukrai- 
nian have  either  been  prohibited  or  put  under  restrictions 
rendering  them  practically  impossible.  The  printing  of 
Ukrainian  text  to  music  of  any  kind  has  been  forbidden. 
The  importation  of  Ukrainian  literature  from  abroad — 
which  means  from  Galicia,  where  Lemberg  has  more  and 
more  become  a  centre  of  Ukrainian  culture  and  agitation 
— has  been  made  a  criminal  offence.  They  very  use  of  the 
native  tongue  in  conversation  has  been  frowned  on  and 
often  made  the  excuse  for  arrests,  I  have  no  figures  as  to 
the  part  played  by  arrests,  fines  and  deportations  in  con- 
nection with  this  policy  of  suppression,  but  I  know  that 
it  has  been  important  and  horrible. 

No  use  of  the  Ukrainian  tongue  in  any  school  has  been 
permitted  under  any  circumstances.  In  general.  Great 
Russians  have  been  preferred  as  teachers,  and  the  child  of 
seven,  who  has  never  heard  any  Russian,  has  been  ex- 
pected to  use  a  primer  where,  out  of  forty-seven  words 
contained  in  the  first  five  lessons,  thirty  are  unintelligible 
to  a  Ukrainian,  The  direct  result  of  this  policy — against 
which  even  Russian  bishops  of  the  Orthodox  Church  have 
protested — may  be  found  in  the  number  of  analphabets 
among  the  Ukrainians  of  the  present  day.  In  the  rest  of 
Russia  there  are  many  peasant  districts  to-day  where 
the  number  of  those  unable  to  read  and  write  has  been 
reduced  to  twenty  per  cent.     There  are  no  such  Ukrainian 


22  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

districts  where  it  falls  below  fifty  per  cent.  When 
a  ukase  was  issued  in  1905,  ordering  the  establishment  of 
Lithuanian  and  Polish  schools,  not  a  word  was  said  about 
Ukrainian. 

Nearly  all  officials,  and  particularly  most  of  the  judges, 
have  been  and  are  Great  Russians  or  russified,  of  course. 
And  it  has  been  a  common  occurrence  to  find  a  judge  and 
prisoner  utterly  unable  to  communicate  intelligently  with 
each  other.  There  is  a  story  afloat  about  an  old  Ukrai- 
nian peasant  woman  who,  when  addressed  by  the  judge, 
threw  up  her  hands  in  horror  and  exclaimed:  "Here  in 
court?  No,  I  can't!"  She  thought  she  had  been  ordered 
to  undress. 

After  1905  permission  was  issued  for  the  printing  of 
newspapers  in  the  native  tongue,  and  a  number  of  these 
sprang  up  at  once,  and  with  them  many  bright  hopes. 
Again  the  censor  took  back  what  the  law  was  supposed  to 
grant,  and  the  police  took  care  of  anything  that  might  be 
overlooked  by  the  censor.  This  is  the  record  of  suppres- 
sion established  by  the  governers  of  three  governments, 
Kiev,  Kherson  and  Kharkov,  in  a  single  year  (1913)  : 
twenty-one  editors  arrested;  twenty-six  newspapers  con- 
fiscated; eighty-five  fines  inflicted,  aggregating  a  sum  of 
20,525  rubles.  To  what  extent  a  press  will  be  able  to 
speak  freely  under  such  circumstances  may  be  easily 
imagined. 

At  the  same  time  everything  has  been  done  to  divert  the 
natural  wealth  of  Ukraine  to  the  rest  of  the  empire.  Out 
of  the  taxes  collected  within  the  purely  Ukrainian  terri- 
tory, nearly  one-half  has  been  spent  elsewhere.  No  eff'orts 
have  been  spared  to  improve  the  conditions  of  the  Great 
Russian  peasants  at  the  expense  of  their  Ukrainian  broth- 
ers. Strange  to  say,  the  abolishment  of  serfdom  seems  to 
have  hurt  instead  of  improved  the  economical  condition 
of  the  peasant  throughout  Russia.  This  decline  has  been 
more  marked  in  Ukraine  than  in  the  Great  Russian  dis- 
tricts.    The  fertility  of  the  Ukrainian  soil  is  such,  how- 


The  Cry   of  Ukraine  23 

ever,  that  its  humblest  tillers  so  far  have  remained  better 
off  than  the  northern  peasants,  in  spite  of  heavier  tax- 
ation and  other  adverse  factors.  But  their  advantage  has 
been  steadily  reduced, 

Ukraine  sent  forty  representatives  to  the  first  Duma,  who 
stood  for  home  rule  of  a  kind  that  could  not  possibly 
menace  the  coherence  of  the  empire.  Their  demands 
won  the  approval  of  many  radical  and  Liberal  members 
of  that  Duma,  without  regard  to  race  or  creed  or  national- 
ity. But  in  official  circles  those  demands  were  branded 
as  'Mazeppism,"  which  is  the  established  Russian  term 
for  Ukrainian  separatism.  Their  bitterest  opponents  were 
found  in  the  Polish  group  of  representatives,  composed 
exclusively  of  big  aristocratic  landowners.  One  of  these 
announced  publicly  that  "if  the  government  would  only 
grant  autonomy  to  a  Greater  Poland,  including  Lithuania, 
White  Russia  and  Ukraine,  the  Poles  would  undertake  to 
butcher  every  revolutionist  within  that  territory  inside  of 
two  months,"  Two  facts  should  be  clearly  focussed  in 
this  connection:  first,  that  the  non-Polish  territory  indic- 
ated holds  less  than  a  million  Poles  to  nearly  forty  mil- 
lions of  Ukrainians,  White  Russians  and  Lithuanians;  and 
secondly,  that,  since  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war  be- 
gan to  raise  new  hopes  for  an  autonomous  Poland,  the 
Poles  all  too  often  have  insisted  that  their  ambitions  will 
remain  unachieved  unless  they  are  given  control  of  all  pro- 
vinces that,  at  one  time  or  another,  used  to  be  Polish — 
provinces,  that  means,  where  the  majority  of  the  popula- 
tion hate  a  Polish  nobleman  as  much  as  the  devil  and 
much  more  than  a  Russian. 

Since  the  dissolution  of  the  second  Duma,  Ukraine  has 
had  no  representation  that  could  be  called  nationalistic. 
In  this  respect  they  have  been  much  more  fortunate  in  Ga- 
licia,  although  economically  they  are  worse  off  under  Au- 
strian— that  is,  Polish — and  Magyar  rule  than  anywhere 
else.  The  Ruthenian  peasant  of  Eastern  Galicia  is  one  of 
the  poorest  creatures  in  the  whole  world.     He  is  not  at  all 


24  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

a  peasant  in  the  true  sense,  but  merely  a  farm-hand,  who 
gets  about  twenty  cents  a  day  and  remains  practically  tied 
to  the  soil  which  he  has  to  till  without  any  profit  to  him- 
self. 45%  of  the  land  is  owned  by  the  Polish  gentry,  of 
whom  Bjornstjerne  Bjornson  once  wrote  that,  "in  their 
understanding,  liberty  means  nothing  but  license  for  them- 
selves to  do  what  they  please."  Trade  and  industry  are 
in  the  hands  of  Germans  and  Jews,  who  care  as  little  as 
the  Poles  for  the  poverty-stricken  mass.  "Therefore," 
says  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  "the  Buthenians  are 
under  an  alien  yoke  both  politically  and  economically." 
"What  has  enabled  the  Poles  to  remain  absolute  masters 
within  a  state  supposed  to  treat  all  races  alike  is  an  old 
bargain,  whereby  they  undertook  to  support  the  Hapsburg 
dynasty  as  long  as  the  Austrian  government  did  not  inter- 
fere with  their  exploitation  of  the  Ruthenians,  That  bar- 
gain was  scrupulously  carried  out  until  1907,  when  a 
democratic  reorganization  of  Austria  was  begun  on  the 
basis  of  universal  suffrage  and  equal  rights  for  all  na- 
tionalities embraced  within  the  monarchy.  Since  then 
things  have  not  appeared  quite  satisfactory  to  the  Poles 
— and  yet  they  had  not  had  time  to  change  materially 
when  the  war  swept  over  the  province. 

The  Poles,  holding  practically  all  administrative  posts, 
have  published  statistics  showing  their  own  race  in  the 
majority  within  Galicia.  Their  figures  were  obtained  by 
counting  800,000  Jews  and  200,000  Roman  Catholic  Ruthe- 
nians as  Poles — the  bulk  of  tiie  Ruthenians  belonging  to 
the  Uniate  Church,  which  means  that  they  acknowledge 
the  Pope,  but  retain  the  outward  forms  of  the  Greek 
Church  and  have  married  priests.  The  true  figures  show 
that,  about  ten  years  ago,  the  Poles  in  Galicia  numbered 
less  than  three  millions,  while  there  were  fully  3,300,000 
Ruthenians.  On  the  strength  of  their  own  statistics,  the 
Poles  obtained  seventy-eight  seats  when  the  allotments 
were  made  for  the  new  parliament  in  1907,  while  the 
Ruthenians  were  given  only  twenty-eight.     In  other  words, 


The   Cry   of  Ukraine  25 

there  was  to  be — and  has  been — one  representative  for 
every  51,000  Poles  as  against  one  for  every  110,000  Ruthe- 
nians.  In  the  provincial  legislature  conditions  have  been 
still  worse,  the  representation  of  the  Ruthenians  falling  at 
times  as  low  as  ten  per  cent,  of  the  total  membership. 
In  February,  1914,  the  Poles  were  forced  into  a  compro- 
mise, whereby  the  Ruthenian  majority  of  the  population 
was  solemnly  guaranteed  a  representation  of  twenty-seven 
per  cent,  in  the  legislature! 

Nevertheless  the  Ruthenians  have  in  many  respects  been 
better  off  than  under  Russian  rule.  They  have  had 
schools  and  clubs  and  a  literature  of  their  own— about 
2,500  of  the  schools — and  they  have  generally  been  allow- 
ed to  discuss  their  own  affairs  in  their  own  language. 
Thanks  to  this  fact,  much  of  the  Ukrainian  propaganda  in 
Russia  has  been  directed  from  Lemberg  in  recent  years. 
Their  schools  have  been  of  the  lowest  grade,  however, 
while  the  Poles  have  used  every  possible  method  to  keep 
the  Ruthenian  language  out  of  the  higher  schools.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  there  was  only  one  Ruthenian  secon- 
dary school  to  every  681,556  people  using  that  language, 
while  there  was  one  secondary  school  to  every  49,753 
Poles.  The  university  of  Lemberg,  established  by  the 
Emperor  Joseph  II  for  the  use  of  the  Ruthenians  alone, 
was  at  once  seized  and  appropriated  by  the  Poles.  On  one 
occasion,  when  the  Ruthenian  students  dared  to  protest 
openly  against  the  unfair  conduct  of  this  university,  one 
hundred  of  them  were  arrested  and  kept  in  jail  for  weeks 
on  trumped-up  charges.  In  recent  years,  however,  the 
number  of  Ruthenian  professors  has  been  gradually  in- 
creased. 

Attempts  have  been  made  from  time  to  lime  to  start  a 
Russophile,  Pan-Slavistic  propaganda  among  the  Ruthe- 
nians. A  great  deal  of  money  and  disingenuous  oratory 
have  been  spent  for  this  purpose.  In  so  far  as  the  move- 
ment has  made  any  progress  at  all,  its  very  limited  suc- 
cess must  be  laid  to  the  Ruthenian  hatred  of  the  Poles. 


26  Ukraine's  Claim   to   Freedom 

Anything  to  get  rid  of  the  old  oppressors,  has  been  a 
tempting  slogan  at  times.  Out  of  twenty-eight  nationalist 
Ruthenians  elected  to  the  Austrian  parliament  in  1907, 
five  were  avowed  Russophiles,  and  there  is  at  least  one  in- 
stance on  record  of  their  views  having  been  aired  openly 
in  the  parliament  at  Vienna.  But  in  the  last  elections  only 
two  Russophiles  were  returned.  On  the  whole,  the  Ruthe- 
nians have  felt  in  recent  years  that  there  was  hope  for 
their  cause  within  the  Austrian  monarchy. 

The  war  proved  a  blow  to  all  their  new  hopes. 
Official  Russia  had  long  been  viewing  the  increas- 
ing freedom  of  the  Ruthenians  with  alarm.  Their  fear 
that  a  movement  for  national  independence  might  sooner 
or  later  spread  to  Ukraine  was,  of  course,  well  grounded. 
One  of  their  first  administrative  measures  after  the  suc- 
cessful invasion  of  Eastern  Galicia  was  to  close  every 
Ruthenian  school,  and  to  prohibit  the  Ruthenian  language 
for  any  public  purpose.  Two  days  after  the  occupation  of 
Lemberg,  they  closed  all  the  Ruthenian  book-stores,  which 
meanwhile  had  been  crowded  with  Russian  officers  and 
soldiers  eager  to  buy  the  literature  forbidden  at  home. 
Under  such  circumstances  one  may  well  doubt  the  Russian 
claims  of  having  been  greeted  as  liberators  by  the  Slav 
population  of  the  province.  In  fact,  it  has  been  asserted 
that  no  Austrian  regiments  have  fought  with  more  stub- 
bornness or  bitterness  than  those  composed  of  Ruthenians. 

What  the  state  of  affairs  may  have  been  in  Ukraine  pro- 
per since  the  outbreak  of  the  war  no  one  seems  to  know. 
There  have  been  some  reports  of  suppressive  measures,  but 
no  rumor  of  serious  popular  unrest.  It  may  be  assumed 
that  the  repeated  Austrian  drives  at  the  Bessarabian  bor- 
der have  been  accompanied,  if  not  prompted,  by  hopes  of 
a  popular  insurrection  in  the  adjoining  districts  of  Little 
Russia.  The  Ukrainians  are  naturally  a  peaceful  people, 
however,  and  they  have  learned  the  cost  of  open  resist- 
ance to  Russian  rule. 


The  Cry   of  Ukraine  27 

Taking  it  all  in  all,  the  outlook  for  the  Ukrainians  in 
Russia  seems  rather  gloomy  just  now.  Yet  they  are  ask- 
ing for  so  little:  the  free  use  of  their  own  language,  and 
a  reasonable  amount  of  local  self-government.  The  Ukrai- 
nian dream  in  Russia  for  many  years  has  been  the  re- 
organization of  the  Russian  Empire  into  a  federation  based 
on  the  American  model.  As  far  back  as  1825,  they  sent 
delegates  to  this  country  for  the  purpose  of  studying  our 
political  institutions,  and  especially  the  relationship  be- 
tween the  states  and  the  federal  government.  If,  as  it 
has  been  rumored  from  time  to  time  lately,  Russia  should 
actually  decide  to  reconstruct  the  empire  into  a  federation 
of  locally  autonomous  and  centrally  represented  national- 
ities, and  if  the  new  principles  should  be  applied  squarely, 
then  the  Ukrainians  would  become  no  less  loyal  than  the 
people  of  Great  Russia.  But  the  one  thing  they  fear  most 
of  all  is  their  own  inclusion  within  an  autonomous  Greater 
Poland — an  alternative  that  is  not  very  likely  to  materi- 
alize. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  UKRAINIAN  REVIVAL 

BY 

PROF.  MICHAEL  HRUSHEVSKY 

J  From  "An  Outline  of  the  History  of  the  Ukrainian  Nation", 
Petrograd,    1904) 


[Michael  Hrushevsky.  Professor  of  history  at  the  Polish- Ukrainian  Uni- 
versity in  I/emberg.  Awarded  gold  medal  by  the  Russian  Academy 
of  Sciences,  Petrograd.  One  of  the  leaders  of  the  Ukrainian  move- 
ment both  in  Austria  and  in  Russia.] 


My  task  would  not  have  been  complete  had  I  not  added 
to  the  review  of  the  historical  past  of  the  Ukrainian  na- 
tionality an  outline  of  its  condition  at  the  present  time. 
This  sketch  of  course  will  be  short  and  incomplete,  as 
there  are  many  subjects  which  I  cannot  here  discuss  in 
detail. 

I  shall  begin  with  Galicia,  which  stands  foremost  in 
the  Ukrainian  national  movement  and  represents  the  centre 
of  the  Ukrainian  regeneration.  This  position,  however, 
is  anomalous,  because,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  the 
social  and  economic  conditions  of  Galicia  are  not  of  a 
kind  favorable  to  her  assuming  this  leading  part.  More- 
over, the  geograpical  centre  of  the  Ukrainian  country  is 
on  the  Dniper,  while  the  historical  centre  is  in  Kiev. 
The  age-long  domination  of  the  Poles  in  Galicia  has  ruined 
this  unfortunate  land,  without  giving  it  any  benefit  in  re- 
turn. All  the  old  Ukrainian  noble  families,  which  were 
the   land   owners,   have   become   entirely   polonized.     The 

28 


The  Ukrainian  Revival  29 

towns  and  villages  are  swamped  with  Jews,  who  have 
driven  the  local  inhabitants  out  of  commerce  and  trade. 
In  towns  of  greater  size  the  Ukrainians  of  the  middle 
class  have  also  become  polonized.  The  only  ones  to  re- 
main faithful  to  their  nationality  have  been  the  peasants, 
and  partly  the  lower  classes  of  the  less  important  towns 
and  villages.  Numerically  they  total  about  three  mil- 
lions— but  in  what  a  pitiable  condition! 

Ruling  without  restriction,  seizing  all  the  land — which 
is  the  wealth  of  the  country,  the  Polish  nobility,  who  hold 
even  now  more  than  one  half  of  the  cultivated  ground, 
have  done  nothing  but  pillage  in  the  most  barbarous, 
grasping  way  the  natural  resources  of  the  country, — a 
country  described  by  ancient  writers  as  a  land  flowing 
with  milk  and  honey.  They  have  exterminated  the  forests 
and  devastated  the  soil,  they  have  made  a  pauper  out  of 
the  peasant,  teaching  him  nothing,  they  have  not  intro- 
duced any  new  progressive  methods  of  agriculture,  nor 
have  they  inaugurated  any  industries,  with  the  exception 
of  distilleries,  the  products  of  which  are  being  used  by 
them  to  intoxicate  the  peasants,  the  sale  of  liquor  being 
leased  as  a  monopoly  to  the  Jews.  Nor  has  anything  been 
done  by  the  Austrian  government  to  improve  the  farms  and 
develop  manufactures  and  industry,  though  it  had  taken 
over  from  the  Polish  kingdom  large  tracts  of  state  land 
in  Galicia.  At  the  present  moment  the  country  is  devoid 
of  any  kind  of  factory  or  mill  industry,  the  development 
of  which  encounters  now  immense  difTiculties.  This  is 
not  only  due  to  the  inertia  of  the  ruling  class  and  the 
trickery  of  the  local  Polish  administration,  but  also  to  the 
confiscatory  tendencies  of  the  Austrian  administrative 
system,  and  furthermore  to  the  competition  of  other  Au- 
strian provinces,  which  are  defending  their  own  economic 
interests.  The  aims  of  the  nobles  representing  Galicia 
are  meanwhile  directed  only  to  the  preservation  of  their 
control  of  the  country,  and  they  are  wholly  indifTerent  to 
the  welfare  of  the  population.     On  the  other  hand,  the 


30  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

continued  existence  of  a  pauperized  peasantry  is  actually 
of  advantage  to  the  agrarian  nobles. 

According  to  the  census  of  1890,  76.9%  of  Galicia's 
population  lived  by  farming.  But  there  are  not  more 
than  10 — 12%  of  peasant  farms  having  tracts  of  land 
which  could,  in  the  face  of  the  very  primitive  methods 
of  farming  and  the  low  prices  on  products  (caused  by 
the  competition  of  the  adjacent  agricultural  countries, 
Russia  and  Hungary),  yield  a  livelihood  to  the  owners' 
families  and  supply  all  their  very  limited  wants.  The 
average  size  of  a  peasant's  plot  of  land,  except  in  the 
mountainous  districts,  where  agriculture  is  feebly  devel- 
oped, is  about  3  to  5  morgues  (between  2  and  3  acres), 
which  is  wholly  insufficient  for  the  maintenance  of  a  pea- 
sant's family.  The  immense  bulk  of  the  peasantry  must 
therefore  look  for  outside  earnings.  In  the  absence  of 
industry  and  owing  to  the  obstacles  put  up  by  the  admini- 
stration to  prevent  the  absenting  of  peasants  for  outside 
occupations  elsewhere,  the  peasants  are  compelled  to  ask 
their  landlords  for  employment;  and  the  latter,  with  no 
fear  of  competition  and  by  mismanaging  their  estates, 
keep  the  prices  for  labor  on  a  very  low  level.  During  the 
farming  months,  a  farm-hand's  pay  is  between  25  and  75 
kreutzers  (10  to  30  cents),  the  laborers  providing  their 
own  food,  while  during  the  other  months  the  price  goes 
down  to  10—20  kreutzers.  Peasants'  strikes,  which  were 
organized  in  1902,  were  declared  criminal,  and  on  the 
slightest  pretext,  and  often  without  any  pretext  at  all, 
resulted  therefore  in  arrests,  lawsuits,  and  indictments, 
by  which  means  they  were  finally  suppressed.  All  at- 
tempts at  the  uplift  of  the  national  welfare  meet  with  ob- 
stacles. As  a  result  the  peasants  are  growing  poorer,  and 
in  masses  emigrate  to  North  America.  There  is  no  nation 
in  Europe  more  unfortunate,  except  perhaps  Ireland;  and 
now,  since  a  better  future  is  dawning  upon  Ireland,  Ga- 
licia  is  in  danger  of  being  the  only  country  of  its  kind 
in  Europe. 


The  Ukrainian  Revival  31 

The  Ukrainian  intellectual  class  is  as  yet  very  weak.  Its 
first  ranks  were  made  up  from  the  clergy  in  the  beginning 
of  the  19th  century,  when  the  educational  requirements 
were  raised.  Only  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  19th  cen- 
tury did  there  appear  some  few  secular  intellectuals, 
among  the  state  employees,  and  later  on  among  members 
of  the  learned  professions.  But  this  intellectual  class, 
originating  among  the  peasantry  and  clergy,  is  poor  and 
dependent.  The  majority  of  the  state  employees,  fearing 
persecution  on  the  part  of  the  higher  authorities,  particip- 
ate but  slightly  either  in  the  political  or  the  cultural  life, 
because  even  upon  work  of  enlightenment  among  the 
Ukrainian  population  the  Polish  administration  looks  with 
disfavor.  The  bulk  of  political  and  educational  work  in 
the  political  and  national  struggle  is  even  now  borne  by  the 
clergy  of  the  villages,  who  still  have  not,  in  spite  of  all 
attempts  to  tear  them  away  from  the  people,  lost  their 
connection  with  the  masses.  From  them  spring  a  great 
number  of  strong  defenders  of  the  people's  interests,  de- 
voted to  their  progress. 

The  Ukrainians  are  debarred  from  all  offices  of  any  im- 
portance whatever.  The  whole  administration  is  in  the 
hands  of  Poles,  and  it  carefully  preserves  the  rule  of  the 
Polish  nationality  in  general  and  of  the  Polish  nobility  in 
particular. 

The  election  of  representatives  is  carried  on  under  the 
heaviest  pressure,  with  corruption  of  all  kinds,  including 
open  violence.  Because  of  this,  the  Ukrainians  are  but 
very  slightly  represented  in  the  parliamentary  institu- 
tions. In  the  Local  Assembly,  they  have  hardly  ten 
representatives,  freely  elected,  among  the  entire  num- 
ber of  161.  In  Parliament,  at  Vienna,  they  have  7  mem- 
bers, including  the  representation  from  Bukovina,  while 
the  Poles,  whom  they  equal  numerically,  have  about  70*. 
Having  found  the  Polish  delegates  subservient  to  its  will, 

*)  This  was  the  case  before  the  electoral  reform  of  1907.  Condi- 
tions were  then  changed.  The  Ukrainian  representation  has  now 
risen,  in  Accordance  with  the  law,   from  7  to  28.  —  Ed. 


32  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

the  Government  ignores  the  Ukrainian  vote  and  leaves  the 
Ukrainians  at  the  mercy  of  the  Poles. 

The  schools  also  serve  the  purpose  of  the  Poles  in  their 
nationalistic  aims.  On  the  whole,  Galicia  can  boast  of 
no  good  public  school  system;  but  the  Ukrainian  villages 
are  in  a  worse  condition  in  this  respect  than  the  Polish. 
The  study  of  Polish  is  supposed  to  be  optional,  but  in 
reality  it  is  not  only  compulsory  but  it  is  imposed  upon 
the  teachers  to  give  particular  attention  to  the  acquisition 
of  Polish  by  the  pupils.  Any  other  positive  knowledge 
the  school  furnisher  only  in  a  slight  degree.  Very  often 
teachers  of  Polish  nationality  are  appointed  to  Ukrainian 
villages,  without  knowing  or  understanding  a  word  of 
Ukrainian.  The  University  of  Lemberg,  which  should 
have  been  entirely  Ukrainian,  because  it  is  established 
for  the  Ukrainian  part  of  Galicia,  has  altogether  but  six 
chairs  with  instruction  in  Ukrainian,  and  all  petitions  for 
the  increase  of  such  chairs  have  been  defeated  by  the  re- 
sistance of  the  Polish  representatives.  The  demand  for 
a  separate  Ukrainian  university  has  met  with  the  same 
fate.  Every  acquisition  in  this  sphere  by  the  Ukrainians 
is  regarded  by  the  Poles  as  a  loss  to  them,  and  for  each 
high  school  or  other  school  the  Ukrainians  have  to 
struggle  with  all  the  powers  of  Polish  rule. 

I  have  had  to  present  a  general  picture  of  the  condition 
of  the  Ukrainian  nation  in  Galicia,  in  order  that  whatever 
has  been  achieved  for  the  Ukrainian  principle  might  be 
properly  appreciated.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
Ukrainians  have  an  enemy  in  their  very  midst,  the  so- 
called  "Russophiles."  This  current  of  opinion  is  growing 
weaker  with  the  cultural  growth  of  the  Ukrainian  nation, 
but  it  still  has  strength  enough  to  hinder  the  constructive 
work  of  the  Ukrainian  national  groups;  the  more  so  as 
it  receives  aid  from  Russia,  and  has  in  recent  times  pos- 
sessed the  support  of  the  Polish  nobility*.     Denying  their 

*)  The  most  striking  example  of  a  Polish-Russian  alliance  against 
the  Ukrainian  revival  was  the  agreement  between  Count  Potocki,  Polish 
Governor  of  Galicia  under  the  Austrian  Government,  and  Stolypin,  Pre- 
mier of  Russia.  —  Ed. 


The  Ukrainian  Revival  33 

nationality,  they  prefer  Polish  schools  to  Ukrainian,  Po- 
lish culture  to  their  own.  As  a  conservative,  reactionary 
and  clerical  element,  they  have  all  the  sympathies  of  the 
dominant  Polish  party,  and  they  are  actually  trying  to  in- 
fluence the  masses  in  a  manner  and  spirit  favorable  to 
the  interests  of  the  Polish  nobles,  as,  for  instance  when, 
in  1902,  they  dissuaded  the  peasants  from  striking.  They 
are  extremely  valuable  to  the  Poles  as  their  allies  against 
the  Ukrainian  national  movement  and  its  political  dev- 
elopment, and  in  this  respect  they  act  with  an  entire  dis- 
regard for  true  values. 

If  therefore,  in  spite  of  all,  in  the  face  of  such  untold 
obstacles,  so  much  has  been  accomplished  in  Galicia  in  so 
short  a  time  as  regards  the  Ukrainian  national  develop- 
ment, and  with  resources  purely  local,  moreover,  except 
for  some  slight  assistance  from  Russian  Ukraine — it 
serves  as  a  very  eloquent  proof  of  the  vitality  and  endur- 
ance of  the  Ukrainian  nation,  which  has  not  degenerated 
under  an  oppression  of  five  hundred  years'  duration,  and 
of  its  ancient  civilization,  which  has  not  been  lost  during 
so  many  centuries  of  slavery  and  decadence. 

This  proof  is  displayed  conspicuously  in  the  recent 
spread  of  literature  and  science.  In  the  direction  of  an  all- 
round  development  of  the  nation,  and  the  satisfying  of  all 
its  spiritual  demands,  this  movement  has  expanded  broad- 
ly. It  has  formulated  a  fixed  purpose  towards  which 
this  national  movement  is  advancing,  insistently  and  re- 
gardless of  all  obstacles.  In  a  very  short  time  a  volum- 
inous literature  has  developed,  which  has  deprived  Polish 
books  of  their  ascendency  over  the  Ukrainian  public. 
"The  Publishing  Company"  was  organized  five  years  ago, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  Ukrai- 
nian renaissance  and  has  published  150  works  of  various 
types,  original  and  translated;  all  this  in  spite  of  its  very 
modest  financial  resources.  While  this  is  the  largest  pub- 
lishing concern  there  are  a  score  of  others.  A  literary 
magazine   "The   Literary-Scientific   Messenger,"    although 

3 


34  Ukraine's  Claim   to   Freedom 

barred  from  Russia,  is  kept  on  a  secure  basis  by  local 
subscribers.  It  appears  monthly;  it  is  in  the  style  of  the 
European  reviews,  and  informs  its  readers  of  all  the  im- 
portant occurrences  in  European  literary  and  cultural  life. 
All  the  prominent  forces  in  the  literary  field  of  Galicia, 
and  to  a  great  extent  also  of  Russian  Ukraine,  are  as- 
sembled about  this  magazine.  The  nineties  of  the  last 
century  produced  in  the  field  of  letters  quite  a  number 
of  new  and  extremely  varied  talents,  reviving  this  branch 
of  art.  Writers  of  fiction  like  Nechuy-Levitzky,  Franko, 
Kobylanska,  Stefanyk,  (I  mention  only  living  writers  of 
Austrian  and  Russian  Ukraine,  not  intending  to  enumerate 
them  all — that  would  take  too  long),  dramatists  like  Kro- 
pivnitzky  and  Tobylevych,  poets  like  Franko  and  Samiy- 
lenko,  would  all  have  been  prominent  in  any  literature. 

Gifted  poets  and  writers  could  be  mentioned  here  by 
dozens.  They  have  a  manner  of  expression  entirely  their 
own,  a  large  variety  of  themes,  and  a  special  way  of  work- 
ing them  out.  Above  all,  this  entire  little  literary  world 
has  a  charm  peculiar  to  itself,  and  unlike  that  of  any 
other  European  literature.  Its  themes  are  all  odd  and 
original,  largely  based  on  types  and  scenes  from  national 
life  of  a  sort  which,  with  the  exception  perhaps  of  Great 
Russian  literature,  cannot  be  found  elsewhere  in  Europe. 
Its  lone,  its  background  is  unique.  Had  a  talented  and 
popular  interpreter  been  found  to  do  for  this  literature 
what  de  Vogiie  did  for  the  Great  Russian  and  Rrandes 
for  the  Scandinavian,  Europe  would  have  gained  a  new 
source  of  literary  enjoyment. 

All  the  scientific  work  is  pivoted  around  the  organiza- 
tion called  the  "Shevchenko  Scientific  Society,"  in  Lem- 
berg.  The  circumstances  of  its  origin  have  been  men- 
tioned above.  After  dragging  along  a  difficult  existence 
it  began  to  develop  only  in  the  nineties.  A  series  of  fun- 
damental reforms  was  undertaken  in  1892  and  1898  which 
changed  its  character  into  a  strictly  scientific  one.  As 
an  institution  it  is  modelled  on  the  style  of  an  academy  of 
sciences,  and  should  have  been  given  this  title;  but  as  to 


The  Ukrainian  Revival  35 

attain  this,  a  special  bill  has  to  be  passed,  a  subsidy  from 
the  state  funds  has  to  be  appropriated,  and  finally  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Imperial  family  has  to  take  such  an  academy 
under  his  protection,  the  society  remains  content  for  the 
present  with  its  existing  academic  organization.  It  con- 
tains three  faculties:  one  for  history,  jurisprudence  and 
philosophy,  one  for  philology,  and  the  third  for  the  natural 
sciences  and  medicine.  There  are  also  five  commissions: 
archaeographical,  ethnographical,  linguistic,  legal  and 
medical.  Each  section  publishes  annually  a  collective 
report  of  its  labors.  Besides  this  a  general  bulletin  is 
issued  in  Ukrainian  and  German,  "The  Chronicle  of  the 
Shevchenko  Scientific  Society,"  and  also  a  scientific  maga- 
zine, devoted  to  the  publication  of  research  work.  The 
total  publications  are: 

1.  Pontes  historiae  Ukraino-Russicae.  (Sources  of 
Ukraine-Russian  history).     6  volumes. 

2.  Monumenta  linguae  et  litterarum  Ukraino-Russica- 
rum.  Monuments  of  the  Ukraino-Russian  language  and 
literature.    4  volumes. 

3.  Historical  Library.     24  volumes. 

4.  Ukraino-Ruthenian  Library  (contains  editions  of  the 
most  prominent  Ukrainian  authors,  with  a  scientific  de- 
partment; this  is  a  new  publication).     4  volumes. 

5.  Ethnographical  Collection.     15  volumes. 

6.  Materials  for  Ukraino-Ruthenian  Ethnology.  6  vol- 
umes. 

7.  Periodical  of  Law  and  Economics.     15  volumes, 

8.  Law  Library.     3  volumes. 

9.  Medical  Collection.     8  volumes. 

Finally  this  same  Society  publishes  the  literary  and 
scientific  magazine  described  above.  Taken  together  as 
many  as  20  volumes  of  a  scientific  character  are  issued 
annually,  aside  from  the  magazine  and  the  bulletins. 

In  spite  of  its  comparatively  recent  origin,  the  publica- 
tions of  the  Scientific  Society  have  already  acquired  an 


36  Ukraine's  Claim   to  Freedom 

honorable  standing  among  specialists.  They  are,  of 
course,  mainly  occupied  with  the  study  of  the  past  and 
present  of  the  Ukrainian  nation  and  its  territory — their 
history,  archaelogy,  ethnology,  national  lore,  language  and 
literature.  The  Scientific  Society  is.  after  all,  the  only 
national  learned  institution,  and  should  naturally  give  its 
utmost  attention  to  the  solution  of  questions  having  the 
closest  connection  with  the  destinies  of  the  Ukrainian  na- 
tion,— the  more  so  as  it  is  not  only  of  purely  scientific 
but  also  of  nationalistic  sociological  importance. 

The  absence  of  Ukrainian  institutions  for  higher  edu- 
cation is  a  serious  obstacle  to  the  development  of  science. 
Lemberg  University,  as  I  have  already  observed,  has  but 
six  Ukrainian  chairs*,  and  aside  from  these  no  Ukrainian 
can  occupy  any  chair.  Men  gifted  for  scientific  work 
must  therefore  look  for  occupation  in  other  fields  of  en- 
deavor or  turn  for  chairs  to  other  universities.  The  ques- 
tion of  Ukrainian  chairs  and  of  a  separate  Ukrainian 
university  in  Lemberg  has  lately  become  a  very  burning 
issue.  In  the  fall  of  1901,  the  Ukrainian  students  came 
out  with  a  demand  for  an  extension  of  the  rights  of  the 
Ukrainian  language  in  the  University.  Meeting  with  a 
vigorous  refusal,  on  the  part  of  the  Polish  authorities  of 
the  University,  they  organized  a  secession,  resigning  from 
the  University  to  a  man,  600  strong,  and  enlisting  with 
other  universities.  This  manifestation  was  readily  and 
strongly  endorsed  by  the  entire  Ukrainian  population  of 
Galicia,  in  the  shape  of  a  collection  of  funds  for  the  seces- 
sionists, and  of  a  repeated  demand  at  every  opportunity 
for  the  establishment  of  a  separate  Ukrainian  university 
at  Lemberg,  because  of  the  inimical  altitude  of  the  present 
Lemberg  University  to  the  national  demands  of  the  Ukrai- 
nians. But  neither  these  demonstrations  nor  these  de- 
mands have  brought  any  positive  results.  The  Poles  have 
placed  the  question  of  submitting  to  the  Ukrainians  in 
such  a  menacing  light  that  the  Government  has  not  dared 
to  grant  the  Ukrainian  demands.     The  whole  incident  has 

*)     Fourteen,   since  the  writing  of  tliis  article  1904. 


The  Ukrainian  Revival  37 

served  only  to  make  the  question  more  bitter  and  the  re- 
lations between  Poles  and  Ukrainians  more  acute. 

In  the  same  way,  the  absence  of  necessary  institutions 
makes  it  impossible  for  the  Ukrainian  nation  to  assert  it- 
self in  the  sphere  of  the  arts.     The  Ukrainians  have  pro- 
duced quite  a  number  of  talented  painters,  and  some  of 
these   are   producing   honorable    work    even    at    present. 
But  owing  to  the  lack  of  an  academy  of  arts  and  national 
associations  of  painters,  they  have  attached  themselves  to 
other  schools,  Russian,  Polish  and  German,  for  example, 
and  are  lost  to  Ukrainian  culture.     Music  fares  no  better. 
As  there  are  no  permanent  national  theatrical  companies 
on  a  large  scale  and  no  conservatories,  operatic  and  sym- 
phonic music  has  never  had  a  chance  to  develop,  although 
the  Ukrainians  are  known  for  their  musical  inclinations. 
Their  popular  songs  are  noted  not  only  for  their  poetical 
qualities    and    their    immense    variety     (Ukrainian    folk 
poetry  is  the  richest  in  Europe),  but  also  for  the  high  de- 
gree of  their  melodious  qualities.     They  have  served  as 
sources  not  only  to   Ukrainian   composers,   but   even   to 
Russian  and  Polish.     Ukrainian  singers  are  engaged   in 
foreign  countries,  while  at  home  music  has  had  to  adapt 
itself  to  the  purposes  of  light  opera  and  minor  vocal  com- 
positions. 

Since  the  administrative  order  of  1881,  Ukrainian  con- 
certs and  performances  are  tolerated  in  Russia,  and  with 
respect  to  the  development  of  drama,  theatrical  art,  and 
music  Russian  Ukraine  is  more  advanced  than  poor  and 
little  Galicia.  Nevertheless,  the  ordinances  prohibiting 
separate,  exclusive  Ukrainian  performances,  permanent 
Ukrainian  theatres,  and  special  Ukrainian  companies  are 
still  in  force,  and  the  staging  of  Ukrainian  operas  there- 
fore meets  with  insurmountable  obstacles. 

In  Galicia,  the  Ukrainians,  though  having  de  jure 
freedom  of  national  development,  are  in  fact  placed  econo- 
mically, socially,  and  politically  in  conditions  which  tend 
to  make   free   national   development   impossible.     Gonse- 


38  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

quently  the  Ukrainians  of  Galicia  have  to  bear,  and  bear 
with  the  utmost  difficulty,  the  weight  of  the  present  cul- 
tural work,  and  have  yet  before  them  a  whole  series  of 
very  complicated  political  problems  to  be  solved  before 
their  national  self-consciousness  can  finally  attain  its  full 
freedom.  In  Russia,  on  the  contrary,  the  development  of 
the  Ukrainians  is  hindered,  generally  speaking,  only  by 
external  restrictions  and  prohibitions. 

An  immense  country,  with  inexhaustible  natural  re- 
sources, though  being  exploited  in  a  very  disastrous  man- 
ner, with  indications  of  a  future  highly-developed  state 
of  factory  and  mill  industry,  and  a  commerce  possessing 
very  important  transit  facilities  and  the  proximity  of  the 
sea,  Ukraine  has  every  chance  for  material,  and  sub- 
sequently for  spiritual,  development.  The  masses  are  dis- 
tinguished by  tremendous  physical  vitality  (statistical  re- 
cords show  a  very  high  birth-rate),  energy,  and  assimi- 
lating power.  Within  recent  memory  large  Ukrainian 
colonies  have  been  created,  and  are  in  fact  being  created 
right  along.  An  example  of  this  is  the  colonization  of  the 
Ussurian  country  near  the  Pacific  Ocean,  where  statistics 
show  from  1883 — 1900  the  presence  of  97%  of  Ukrai- 
nian settlers.  Elements  artificially  injected  into  the  body 
of  Russian  Ukraine  in  the  form  of  Serbian  and  Bulgarian 
settlements  of  considerable  extent  have  been  entirely  ab- 
sorbed. 

The  widely  circulated  opinion  that  the  Ukrainian  nation 
is  ill  fitted  for  self-organization  is  contradicted  by  histo- 
rical facts.  That  is  possesses  natural  gifts  there  can  be 
no  doubt,  for  the  nation  has  given  birth  to  Gogol  and 
Shevchenko  and  an  endless  row  of  lesser  lights  in  all 
spheres  of  culture. 

Under  such  conditions,  occupying  an  undivided  terri- 
tory without  admixture  of  foreign  elements  able  to  in- 
fringe to  any  extent  upon  this  territorial  unity,  the  Ukrai- 
nian nation  has  every  chance  to  develop  a  high  national 
civilization.     The    Jews    alone    constitute    a    numerically 


The  Ukrainian  Revival  39 

considerable  foreign  element,  but  there  can  be  no  danger 
whatever  from  them  in  this  matter. 

The  great  percentage  of  Poles  in  the  so-called  South- 
western districts  is  made  up  largely  of  polonized  local 
inhabitants. 

The  intellectual  classes  and  the  urban  middle  classes 
in  Ukraine  are  even  now  under  the  influence  of  Russian 
culture,  but  this  is  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  there  is 
not  and  cannot  be,  under  the  conditions  outlined  here,  any 
Ukrainian  city  culture  of  its  own.  The  only  manifest- 
ation of  the  latter  is  displayed  in  the  Ukrainian  theatre, 
and  its  widespread  and  lasting  popularity  and  the  living 
interest  in  it  shown  by  the  intelligent  and  middle  classes, 
argues  eloquently  for  the  future.  I  personally  have  met 
people  who  had  evidently  entirely  lost  their  Ukrainian 
nationality,  people  little  if  at  all  educated,  who,  during 
their  travels,  would  make  a  considerable  detour,  in  order 
to  visit  a  town  where  a  performance  by  "Little  Russians" 
was  to  be  seen.  There  is  great  demand  for  Ukrainian 
books,  though  printing  in  Ukrainian  is  still  partly  under 
the  ban.  "Kobsar,"  by  Shevchenko,  and  Kosarevsky's 
works  have  been  sold  in  hundreds  of  thousands.  A  read- 
er containing  selections  from  Ukrainian  writers  (a  low- 
grade  substitute  for  a  history  of  literature),  a  publication 
allowed  by  the  Russian  censor  in  1898,  was  exhausted  in 
a  few  months,  despite  the  high  price  and  the  large  size 
of  the  edition. 

All  these  facts  enable  one  to  conclude  convincingly 
that,  when  governmental  restrictions  are  removed,  the 
Ukrainian  nation  will  enter  upon  the  stage  of  intensive 
development,  a  preliminary  condition  the  way  for  which 
has  already  been  prepared  by  the  successes  of  the  Ukrai- 
nians in  Galicia. 

One  argument  raised  against  the  bringing  into  exist- 
ence of  a  national  culture,  in  its  full  sense,  is  that  while 
the  Ukrainian  nation  can  assert  itself  in  its  ethnographical 
manifestations,  the  Ukrainian  language  is  fitted  only  for 


40  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

home  use  by  people  unfamiliar  with  the  Russian  tongue, 
the  latter  language  alone  being  of  a  quality  to  satisfy 
the  demands  of  an  intellectual  class  and  suitable  for  use 
in  literature  and  science.  This  argument,  brought  for- 
ward by  a  conseiTative  press  and  repeated  by  various 
Ukrainian  individuals  of  moderate  tendencies,  serves  as  a 
motive,  a  motive  in  force  up  to  the  present,  for  the  prohi- 
bition of  scientific  books  and  scientific  lectures  in  the 
Ukrainian  language  and  also  of  literary  translations  and 
the  production  of  plays  and  works  of  fiction,  in  which  in- 
dividuals of  the  intelligent  classes  are  portrayed. 

All  measures  of  this  kind  have  certainly  a  serious  in- 
fluence; they  hinder  and  obstruct  the  national  movement, 
but  only  to  a  certain  degree.  The  wide  and  all-round 
development  of  the  Ukrainian  nation  is  only  a  question  of 
time,  perhaps  even  of  a  time  not  very  remote. 

[1904.] 

[Concerning  the  later  development  of  the  Ukrainian 
revival  in  Russia,  see  the  article  by  Prof.  Hoetzsch.] 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  END  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  POLISH 
EMPIRE 

BY 

CARL  LEUTHNER. 

(From    "Socialistische  Monatshefte",  Stuttgart,  1908.) 


[Carl  Iveuthner.    Prominent  Austrian    political  writer.    Member  of  the 
Social-Democratic  group  in  the  Parliament  at  Vienna.] 


To  most  politicians  in  the  German  Empire  the  Polish 
question  has  become  merely  a  problem  of  Prussian  me- 
thods of  administration.  The  feeling  that  we  had  before 
us  a  European  problem  inseparably  intertwined  with  the 
Prussian  ill-treatment  of  the  Poles  was  still  alive  in  the 
sixties  of  the  last  century.  It  seems  now  to  have  com- 
pletely vanished.  The  adherents  as  well  as  the  opponents 
of  what  is  known  as  Hakatism  agree  in  the  one  essential 
point.  Rut  one  may  cry  out  against  Polish  treason  or 
deny  it  altogether;  one  may  attempt  by  German  instruc- 
tion to  convert  the  Poles  into  good  Prussians  or  Germans 
or  one  may  insist  that  friendly  treatment  is  all  that  is 
needed  to  make  them  loyal;  is  not  the  one  error  as  ridic- 
ulous as  the  other?  Would  it  not  be  better  if  both  the 
friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  Poles  were  to  inquire  first 
whether  the  Pole  understands  the  term  "treason"  in  the 
same  way  as  the  member  of  a  national  state,  and  whether 

41 


42  Ukraine's  Claim   to  Freedom 

it  is  really  possible — either  by  means  of  the  whip  or  by 
a  softer  treatment — to  uproot  the  longing  for  independence 
from  the  heart  of  a  people  strong  in  its  self-consciousness 
and  the  sense  of  its  great  past? 

The  fact  is  that  the  essential  aim  of  Polish  aspiration 
is  the  state.  What  they  were  struggling  for  up  to  1863, 
in  the  main,  and  what  they  are  partly  struggling  for  still 
is  not  their  own  national  liberty  but  the  dream  of  the  old 
Polish  Empire,  the  Empire  that  was  built  up  on  a  basis 
of  the  most  monstrous  political,  economic,  and  national 
suppression  of  two-thirds  of  its  inhabitants,  the  Little 
Russians  (Ukrainians),  White  Russians,  Lithuanians  and 
Germans,  by  the  ruling  one-third,  the  Poles  themselves. 

Anyone  looking  over  the  newspapers  and  writings  of 
the  sixties  of  the  last  century,  will  at  once  be  struck  with 
the  overwhelming  feeling  of  disillusionment  created 
among  public  men  of  Western  Europe  when  that  fact  was 
borne  in  upon  them.  The  attitude  of  the  Little  Russians 
and  Lithuanians  during  the  revolt  of  1863  tore  to  pieces 
the  legend  of  a  Polish  Empire.  When  writers  of  the 
rank  of  a  Leroy-Beaulieu  then  assumed  an  attitude  all  too 
friendly  toward  Russia  there  may  have  contributed  to  it 
something  like  a  feeling  of  shame  over  the  fact  that  all 
the  lyrical  and  rhetorical  outbursts  friendly  to  the  Poles 
had  had  their  origin  in  the  enthusiasm  of  Inpes,  who  had 
reversed  the  ideal  of  liberty  in  a  matter  which,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Ukrainian  revolutionist  Dragomanow,  would 
have  been  "for  the  immense  majority  of  the  Western  Rus- 
sian population  merely  the  exchange  of  the  Russian  for 
the  Polish  rule  of  force."  Of  course,  this  realization  has 
since  been  lost  again  to  many  people.  Men  who  love  to 
make  up  for  a  lack  of  real  knowledge  by  a  surplus  of 
"tendency"  still  speak  of  the  partition  of  Poland  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  old  Polish  National  myth,  just  as  if 
they  did  not  know  that  in  the  Prussian  section  almost  as 
many  Germans  were  freed  from  the  Polish  yoke  as  Poles 
were  brought  under  the  German  yoke;  that  in  Galicia  the 
first  conditions  for  a  really  humane  existence  for  half  of 


The  End  of  the  Idea  of  Polish  Empire  43 

the  population,  the  three  and  a  half  million  Ukrainians, 
were  created  only  through  Austria. 

But  nowadays  the  error  does  not  spring  from  enthusiasm 
but  from  a  lack  of  interest,  most  easily  hidden  behind 
well-meaning  phrases. 

Still  it  would  seem  that  just  now  is  the  time  to  give 
most  careful  attention  to  this  matter  because  clearer  think- 
ing is  now  beginning  to  spread  among  the  Polish  people 
themselves,  a  process  that  must  result  in  separating  Polish 
national  thought  from  the  idea  of  Polish  Empire  still 
clinging  to  it. 

On  Russian  soil,  the  revolution  has  given  the  impetus; 
on  Galician,  the  growth  of  the  Ukrainian  (Little  Russian) 
movement.     In  this   connection   alone   the   killing   of   the 
Galician   Governor  Count  Potocki  by  the   Ukrainian   Si- 
chinsky,  which  made  such  a  deep  impression  everywhere, 
will  be  seen  in  its  proper  significance.     This  event  could 
never  have  struck  the  Poles  a  harder  blow  that  at  the  very 
time  when  they  were  appealing  for  compassion  on  behalf 
of  their  brothers  oppressed  in  Germany.     It  revealed  to  all 
the  world  the  fact  that  the  Poles,  oppressed  in  Posen,  kept 
another  nation  within  the  grasp  of  their  fists  in  Galicia. 
The  purely  national  character  of  the  act  could  not  be  de- 
nied.    Though   the   Ukrainian   Socialist   organ   "Semla   e 
Vola"  claimed  Sichinsky  as  a  comrade,  it  censured  this 
act  from  the  point  of  view  both  of  tactics  and  principle 
precisely  as  did  the  bourgeois-democratic  organ   "Dilo", 
while  both  papers  highly  praised  the  young  man   as   a 
human   being   and   held   him,   as   the   representative   and 
executor  of  the  wrath  of  an  oppressed  nation,  excusable. 
The  whole  Ukrainian  people  looked  upon  the  act  in  the 
same  way,   particularly   its   leading   element — the   young 
intellectuals   to   whom    Sichinsky    himself   belonged    and 
whose  sentiments  he  and  his  act  incarnated.     It  is  of  no 
use  for  the  Poles  to  point  out  that  the  recent  election  re- 
form had  considerably  increased  the  rights  of  the  Ukrai- 
nians, for  in  the  assassination  are  really  reflected  only  the 
excitements   and   methods   of   the   Russian   revolutionary 


44  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

guerilla  warfare.  What  little  the  Ukrainians  had  gained 
by  the  electoral  reform  had  had  to  be  wrung  from  the 
unwilling  Shlakhta.  The  example  of  the  Polish  revolu- 
tionaries in  Russia  alone  could  never  have  had  such  an 
infectious  influence  upon  the  Ukrainians  in  Galicia.  In 
both  cases  it  was  the  wrath  stored  up  for  a  century  that 
brought  about  such  a  terrific  explosion. 

One  can  only  comprehend  the  depth  of  that  hatred  by 
recalling  the  history  of  both  peoples.  A  comparison  may 
serve  here  as  illustration.  Peoples  who  have  not  yet 
realized  an  incarnation  into  states  are  peoples  of  longing 
and  recollection.  The  German  Empire  once  founded,  the 
glory  of  the  Hohenstaufen  epoch  paled  gradually,  while 
with  the  Poles  the  picture  of  the  victory  of  Tannenberg 
has  been  renewed  in  lurid  colors  during  a  century  of  dis- 
memberment and  powerlessness.  In  the  souls  of  the 
Ukrainians  the  Cossack  republic  likewise  still  lives  in 
tale  and  song  recalling  the  bloody  struggles  against  the 
Poles  and  a  long  and  terrible  series  of  cruel  revolts  and 
cruel  defeats. 

But  the  Poles  did  not  content  themselves  with  merely 
murdering  the  body,  they  wanted  to  kill  the  soul  also. 
At  the  time  the  Polish  Empire  was  divided,  the  Little 
Russian  and  Lithuanian  book  language  and  culture  was 
already  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  nobility  had  been  po- 
lonized,  the  free  peasant  reduced  to  a  "khlop,"  a  serf. 
Even  the  recollection  of  the  national  existence  of  the 
Little  Russians  had  been  blotted  out. 

Maria  Theresa  and  Catharine  considered  the  newly 
acquired  territories — half  in  our  case,  two  thirds  in  the 
other,  not  Polish — as  really  Polish  country,  just  as  the 
Liberal  lyricism  did  later  on  in  its  zeal  for  their  "liber- 
ation." Alexander  I,  influenced  by  Speranski,  and  in 
order  to  show  his  own  Liberalism  in  a  spectacular  manner, 
experimented  with  a  Kingdom  of  Poland,  retaining  its 
ancient  boundaries,  and  established  the  second  Polish 
university  in  the  capital  of  Lithuania.  The  revolt  of  1830, 
in  the  course  of  which  occurred  a  rising  of  Lithuanian 


The  End  of  the  Idea  of  Polish  Empire  45 

peasants  against  the  Polish  "Pani",  did  really  change  the 
Russian  official  view,  but  at  first  only  in  literature 
through  the  work  of  the  historian  Ustyalov;  later  on,  in 
practice,  the  great  Russian  principle  of  denationalization 
supplanted  the  Polish  principle.  Up  to  the  days  of  the 
Revolution  of  1904,  the  Little  Russian,  the  White  Russian, 
and  the  Lithuanian  languages  were  legally  prohibited;  no 
periodical,  no  scientific  or  popular  work,  no  translation, 
not  even  that  of  the  New  Testament,  was  pemiitted  to 
appear  in  any  of  those  languages.  Even  today  they  oc- 
cupy a  sad  and  so  to  speak  pariah  position.  The  brief 
springtime  of  freedom  is  gone.  Although  they  no  longer 
dare  to  place  the  Little  Russian  language  under  lock  and 
key,  the  Little  Russian  press  is  sorely  persecuted,  the 
Little  Russian  societies  in  Kiev  and  Charkov  may  only, 
according  to  report  in  the  "Ryech",  arrange  theatricals; 
lectures  are  limited  to  the  utmost;  the  dissemination  of 
literature  in  the  country  districts  is  made  impossible. 

Under  what  conditions  did  the  Little  Russian  literature 
and  book  language  develop  from  the  thirties  and  forties 
of  the  last  century  when  Kostomarov,  Rodyansky  and  the 
prominent  poet  Shevchenko  built  the  foundation?  In 
addition  to  the  shackles  of  the  censor  there  was  a  still 
more  rigid  barrier  in  the  fact  that  among  the  plain  pea- 
sants with  their  polonized  nobility  and  russianized  in- 
tellectuals there  were  scarcely  any  readers.  Still  less 
was  there  a  standard  form  of  the  common  language. 
Education  and  instruction  forced  the  Little  Russian  writer 
to  use  the  Great  Russian  idiom.  From  Bogdanovich  to 
Kovalenko  and  Potapenko.  a  long  line  of  Little  Russians 
have  enriched  the  Great  Russian  literature  with  some  of 
its  finest  products.  In  the  person  of  Gogol,  the  creator 
of  the  Great  Russian  novel — in  whose  writings  the  feel- 
ing against  the  Great  Russians  is  as  manifest  as  in  his 
"Taras  Bulba,"  the  hatred  of  the  free  Cossacks  against  the 
Polish  oppressors — this  condition  assumes  the  exalted 
forni  of  real  tragedy. 


46  Ukraine's  Claim   to   Freedom 

Once  the  Great  Russians  had  entered  into  the  heritage 
of  Polish  methods  of  oppression,  the  behavior  of  the  two 
master  nations  towards  the  literature  of  Little  Russia 
proceeded  along  parallel  lines.  Nicholas  I  sent  Kostoma- 
rov  and  Shevchenko  into  exile.  Polish  society  and  the 
Polish  press  even  twenty  years  later  ostracised  Antono- 
vich  and  his  friends  because  as  Ukrainian  noblemen 
they  thought  and  felt  as  Ukrainians  instead  of  as  Poles. 
For  the  awakener  of  Ukraine  they  invented  the  derisive 
expression  khlopamanie  (khlop,  serf,  peasant),  which 
Great  Russian  superciliousness  re-coined  in  to  "khakh- 
lomanie"  (khakhol,  equivalent  to  pigtail-man),  in  order 
to  express  contempt  for  the  Little  Russians.  And  just  as 
the  Great  Russian  critic  Bielinsky  upbraided  Gogol  for 
his  Ukrainian  sympathies,  so  also  the  Polish  critics  abus- 
ed Shevchenko  in  the  grossest  manner  as  a  glorifier  of 
the  "barbarism  and  inhumanity"  of  the  Cossack  wars. 

The  attitude  of  the  Russian  government  is  reflected  in 
the  ideas  of  the  Russian  Pan-Slavists,  Liberals  and  revolu- 
tionaries. They  also  are  dominated  by  the  spirit  of  their 
time  in  regard  to  the  concept  of  a  national  state  which 
misled  even  a  Marx  in  his  judgment  as  to  the  future  of  the 
Slavonic  smaller  peoples  of  Austria.  In  the  conferences 
of  the  Decabrists  with  the  Poles,  Muraviev  represented 
the  integrity  of  the  Russian  Empire  (which  he  wished 
to  federalize),  the  Pole  Krzyzanovski  insisted  on  the 
restoration  of  Poland  with  its  ancient  boundaries.  There 
was  no  mention  of  the  other  nationalities.  But  in  the 
revolutionary  sphere,  the  realm  of  dreams  glorified  by  a 
glimmer  of  liberty  appeared  stronger  than  the  realm  of 
reality.  That  manifests  itself  in  Herzen.  In  the  cele- 
brated series  of  articles  Ihissia  and  Poland,  which  in- 
augurated the  Revolution  of  1863,  he  raises  the  question 
as  to  what  might  happen  if  the  Little  Russians  were  to 
acknowledge  neither  the  Russian  nor  the  Polish  leader- 
ship; in  which  case  they  would  have  to  be  left  indepen- 
dent. But  more  and  more  he  allowed  himself  subse- 
quently to  be  dragged  into  the  Polish  scheme,  influenced 


The  End  of  the  Idea  of  Polish  Empire  47 

partly  by  Bakunin  who,  like  his  Socialist  opponents,  had 
no  proper  understanding  of  the  importance  and  peculia- 
rity of  nationalism  and  expected  Russian  freedom  from 
a  Polish  revolt,  whereas  it  was  self-evident  that  a  co- 
operation of  the  Russian  Liberals  with  the  Poles  must 
rouse  all  the  Nationalist  sentiments  of  the  Russians  against 
Liberalism.  The  Russian  revolutionists,  like  all  the  others, 
had  taken  over  the  inheritance  of  the  Polish  ideal  of  free- 
dom. They  closed  their  eyes  in  the  face  of  patent  facts. 
Dragomanow  relates  how  the  emissaries  of  "Semla  e 
Vola",  negotiating  in  Volhynia  with  Polish  revolutio- 
nists before  the  Polish  rising,  took  no  heed  of  the  fact 
that  Polish  nobles  had  delivered  into  the  nets  of  the  Rus- 
sian police  partisans  of  Little  Russia  because  they  had 
refused  to  join  the  Polish  cause. 

This,  of  course,  was  a  correct  action  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  idea  of  Polish  Empire  for  which  the  oppres- 
sion of  Ukrainians  and  Lithuanians  is  as  essential  as  Po- 
lish liberty.  The  Shlakhta  in  Austria  had  likewise  per- 
secuted its  opponents,  now  as  enemies  of  Poland,  now  as 
enemies  of  Austria.  Nor  shall  we  forget  an  article  of 
Chernishevski,  harshly  upbraiding  the  Galician  Ukrai- 
nians for  their  "national  lack  of  tact"  and  advising  them 
to  make  common  cause  with  the  Poles  against  the  "com- 
mon German  enemy,"  which  would  have  meant  going  with 
the  Polish  Shlakhta  that  exploits  them  and  the  Polish 
bureaucracy  that  oppresses  them.  But  Chernishevski, 
like  other  Great  Russian  revolutionaries,  was  amazingly 
ignorant  of  Western  Slavic  conditions  and — by  the  side 
of  his  writing  desk  stood  the  Pole  Syerakovski!  And 
who  has  ever  better  understood  the  art  of  influencing 
others  than  the  Poles? — they  for  whom  even  today  in- 
dustrious pens  are  working  in  the  Kolnische  Volkszeitung 
and  in  the  Novoye  Vremya,  in  the  Osservatore  Romano, 
and  in  the  Vienna  semi-official  press.  Great  is  the  ad- 
vantage when  leadership  and  representation  are  in  the 
hands  of  aristocrats.  Even  the  anti-Polish  peasant  re- 
forms after  the  Revolution  of  4863  did  not  prevent  the 


48  Ukraine's  Claim   to   Freedom 

Poles  having  a  certain  favorable  position  in  Russia  in 
spite  of  all  oppression,  a  position  as  favorable  as  that  of 
the  Baltic  nobility.  In  Austria,  the  Shlakhta  gained  a 
share  in  the  government  even  before  the  Czechs.  At  the 
London  memorial  banquets  in  honor  of  the  Polish  revolt, 
Marx  and  the  other  official  speakers,  in  a  similar  vein, 
spoke  of  Polish  freedom;  but  the  other  subject  nation- 
alities of  Russia,  though  far  more  oppressed,  were  scarce- 
ly mentioned.  The  aristocratic  manner  of  life  and 
thought  of  all  Poles  brings  into  greater  relief  their  revol- 
utionary romanticism.  How  much  time  did  it  take  for 
the  much  more  numerous  people  of  Little  Russia,  demo- 
cratic but  of  peasant  manners,  to  obtain  a  standing  of 
equality  in  the  ceremonial  code  of  revolutionaries! 

The  last  Polish  revolt,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  annihilated 
the  idea  of  a  Polish  Empire  without,  however,  dislodging 
it  from  the  heads  of  the  Poles  themselves.  True,  at  times 
even  in  Warsaw,  sensible  voices  have  been  heard,  but 
they  have  found  scant  echo  in  Wilna  and  still  less  in 
Cracow  and  Lemberg,  where,  since  the  restoration  through 
Golukhovski,  the  Polish  republic  has  been  again  etsab- 
lished  under  Austrian  suzerainty.  The  meaning  of  the 
Polish  idea  of  empire,  of  Polish  freedom,  need  not  be 
looked  for  in  theories  and  books:  forty  years  of  practice 
in  the  history  of  Galicia  show  it.  But  we  do  not  wish  to 
speak  here  at  all  of  the  exploitation  of  the  Ukrainian  pea- 
sants, of  the  arbitrariness  of  the  Polish  officials  and 
courts,  of  the  once  existing  curial  electoral  vote  that  gave 
to  the  Poles  eighty,  to  the  equally  numerous  Ukrainians 
ten,  deputies  in  the  Reichsrath,  and  in  the  Diet  to  the 
former  one  hundred  and  twenty,  the  latter  twenty,  re- 
presentatives; in  all  these  things  one  may  say  the  class 
interest  of  the  ruling  Shlakhta  is  involved.  We  merely 
point  to  the  purely  national  problems.  There  the  Pole 
acts  as  a  Pole,  and  there  all  Poles  are  of  one  mind. 

Of  course,  the  Galician  governors  and  officials  could  not 
follow  the  Russian  model  and  simply  prohibit  the  Ukrai- 
nian language,  for  that  was  impossible  under  the  funda- 


The  End  of  the  Idea  of  Polish  Empire  49 

mental  laws  of  Austria;  but  how  they  deliberately  neg- 
lected the  Ukrainian  schools;  how  they  even  wanted  to 
prohibit  the  Ukrainians  from  using  the  Russian  writing 
alphabet  and  informed  against  them  on  that  score  in 
Vienna;  how  they  mobilized  clericalism  with  Roman  sup- 
port against  the  Ukrainian  national  aspirations;  how  they 
favored  now  the  Great  Russian  current  in  certain  Ukrai- 
nian circles  and  then  again  the  Ukrainian  national  one 
in  order  to  play  one  against  the  other  and  subsequently 
denounce  to  the  government  the  one  as  a  Pan-Russian,  the 
other  as  a  revolutionary  menace — all  that  sprang  from 
the  same  spirit  which  also  animates  the  Russian  admini- 
stration in  Kiev  and  Charkov,  except  that  in  Galicia  cor- 
ruption must  make  up  for  what  is  lacking  possibly  in  the 
way  of  force.  And  that  comes  right  down  to  daily  events. 
Because  frightened  by  the  successes  of  the  Ukrainian  Na- 
tional Party  at  the  elections  to  the  Reichsrath,  he  sup- 
ported the  Russophiles  at  the  elections  to  the  Galician 
Diet — for  that,  really,  Potocki  met  his  death. 

Here  now  we  have  a  turning  point  all  the  more  signifi- 
cant because  of  its  resemblance  to  a  similar  turning  point 
in  the  history  of  the  Poles  in  Russia.  For  decades  the 
Russian  as  well  as  the  Polish  revolutionaries  stuck  to 
the  centralistic  tendency  in  spite  of  some  isolated  con- 
cessions to  the  federal  principle.  Only  since  the  labor 
movement  took  hold  of  the  masses  and  the  "proletarian 
character"  of  the  Russian  Social  Democracy  became  a 
reality  instead  of  being  a  mere  item  in  a  platform,  when 
practical  agitation  made  it  necessary  to  proceed  in  every 
territory  according  to  its  local  conditions,  when  the  Let- 
tish, the  Lithuanian,  and  the  Armenian  Social  Democracy 
became  the  real  representatives  of  the  national  idea  of  the 
respective  peoples  and  the  Bund  as  the  best  equipped 
organization  included  the  cities  of  the  West,  the  Russian 
idea  of  the  state  has  become  extinct  in  the  minds  of  Socia- 
lists, the  first  Semstvo  Congresses  showing  the  entrance  of 
the  federalistic  (Dragomanow)  concept  even  among  hour- 


50  Ukraine's   Claim   to   Freedom 

geois  circles.  As  for  the  Poles,  the  dream  of  their  em- 
pire now  broke  down  altogether.  The  prophetic  word  of 
Antonovich:  "For  us  of  the  Shlakhta  in  the  Little  Rus- 
sian and  Lithuanian  country,  there  will  remain  nothing 
hereafter  but  to  merge  with  the  people  over  whom  we 
have  ruled  thus  far,  or  to  flee  to  Warsaw,"  became  a  liv- 
ing reality  in  the  days  of  the  Lithuanian  and  Little  Rus- 
sian peasant  movement,  even  if  the  Czar  seemed  to  re- 
store for  the  moment  the  appearance  of  Polish  supremacy 
in  the  West  by  means  of  the  Witte  electoral  law  and  its 
favoring  of  the  aristocracy,  subsequently  destroyed  en- 
tirely by  the  electoral  system  of  Stolypin.  Beside  economic 
and  social  considerations,  the  Polish  bourgeoisie  were  de- 
termined in  their  extraordinary  passivity  no  doubt  also  by 
the  idea  that  the  Revolution  was  shaking  no  less  the  found- 
ations of  the  dreamer  of  Polish  Empire  as  well  as  those  of 
the  real  Empire  of  the  Czar.  In  other  ways  the  Poles  have 
met  with  the  same  experience  in  Galicia.  One  may  say 
that  they  already  know,  though  they  may  not  yet  say  it 
aloud,  that  Polish  Galicia,  that  last  remnant  of  the  Polish 
Empire,  is  a  thing  of  the  past;  even  if  the  successor  of 
Potocki.  Bobrzynski,  has  been  brought  forth  from  the  most 
conservative  corner  of  the  Shlakhta  Party,  even  if  Po- 
lish Liberal  papers  like  the  "Nowa  Reforma"  speak  of 
the  Galician  governor  openly  and  in  so  many  words  as 
a  representative  of  the  Polish  people,  responsible  only 
to  the  Poles.  They  shout  thus  loudly  only  to  get  rid  of 
their  fear,  which  breaks  out  all  too  plainly  in  the  same 
Polish  papers  whenever  they  publish  rumors  of  a  Ukrai- 
nian peasant  revolt,  or  of  the  burning  of  houses  of  Polish 
grandees, — rumors  altogether  false,  but  for  that  reason 
all  the  more  significant. 

The  idea  of  the  Polish  Empire  is  on  the  point  of  dying. 
In  ten  years,  it  will  have  disappeared  from  the  political 
thought  of  the  Poles  as  it  is  already  eliminated  in  the 
political  practice  of  the  Polish  Social  Democracy  in  Austria 
and  likely  enough  in  Russia  also.  Few  recent  senti- 
mental manifestations   in  behalf  of  this  idea  are  worth 


The  End  of  the  Idea  of  Polish  Empire  51 

considering  seriously.  But  this  is  a  fact  of  the  utmost 
importance.  The  idea  of  Polish  independence  is  debat- 
able from  the  point  of  view  of  German  Social  Democrats, 
both  from  the  German  and  the  Socialist  standpoint  (since 
it  implies  only  the  freedom  of  the  Poles,  and  not  as  here- 
tofore the  oppression  of  other  nationalities) ,  only  when  the 
Polish  demands  stop  at  the  boundaries  of  the  Polish  lan- 
guage; when  the  Pole  gives  up  his  dream  of  the  Baltic 
Sea  as  well  as  of  the  Black  Sea;  when  his  hopes  take 
leave  of  Danzig  as  well  as  of  Wilna.  The  idea  of  a  Polish 
state  on  Polish  soil  is  debatable,  but  from  the  German 
point  of  view  is  still  very  far  from  being  a  practical  issue. 
The  Hakatists  will  not  exterminate  the  Poles;  the  Centre 
will  not  conciliate  them;  the  Gennan  Social  Democracy 
will  not  liberate  them.  Such  a  liberation  can  only  be 
accomplished  by  each  people  for  itself. 

The  Polish  question  is  a  European  question,  strictly 
included  in  the  tremendous  problem  presented  by  the 
Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian-White-Russian-Jewish-Rou- 
manian mass  of  Western  Russia  in  its  fermentation 
and  its  changes.  We  have  here  a  meeting  of  "questions 
and  question  marks."  None  of  these  nationalities  is 
cleanly  separated  from  the  others,  all  are  mixed  up  to- 
gether. Some  of  them  are  only  beginning  to  rise,  like 
the  largest  one  among  them,  the  Ukrainians,  to  more 
compact  forms  of  self-consciousness.  Even  theoretically 
the  problem  of  their  mutual  separation  and  their  boun- 
dary with  respect  to  the  Great  Russians  offers  tremendous 
difficulties.  Besides,  most  of  them  reach  out  in  consider- 
able numbers  into  neighboring  states,  where,  as  in  Aus- 
tria, in  Hungary,  and  in  the  Balkans,  a  similar  ferment- 
ation is  going  on.  so  that  the  circle  of  connected  actions 
is  infinitely  enlarged.  Taken  together,  they  are  far  too 
big  a  weight  to  justify  the  assumption  that  Russia  would 
be  able  to  rule  this  whole  non-Russian  West  with  its  more 
than  forty  million  inhabitants  according  to  the  now  pre- 
vailing cenlralistic  formulas,  once  the  national  self-con- 
sciousness has  penetrated  deeply  into  these  peoples.     On 


52  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

the  other  hand  the  Russian  state  idea  is  too  strong  and 
supported  by  too  powerful  a  nation  to  justify  the  other 
assumption  that  Russia  would  gradually  disintegrate,  as 
it  is  prophesied  at  times  in  regard  to  Austria  and  Hung- 
ary. Once  the  conflict  of  dualism  between  the  Russian 
and  Polish  ideas  of  Empire  disappears,  the  forces  thus 
freed  from  the  former  tension  may  group  themselves  in 
manifold  forms.  A  dissolution  of  the  Russian  state  into 
a  loose  federalism  may  be  considered  remotely  possible 
just  as  well  as  the  forcible  rejuvenation  of  the  Pan- Slavic 
idea  of  conquest  for  which  the  possibilities  are  coming 
with  the  vanishing  of  the  conflict  between  the  Russians 
and  the  Little  Russians,  and  the  change  from  the  democ- 
ratic socialistic  nationalism  to  a  simple  nationalism. 

Where  there  are  so  many  possibilities,  all  conclusions 
must  be  dropped.  Only  one  thing  must  be  taken  for 
granted.  Only  through  a  change  in  the  whole  status  of 
East  European  affairs  is  there  any  chance  for  the  final 
solution  of  the  Polish  question.  The  Germans  in  the  Em- 
pire and  in  Austria,  no  matter  of  what  party,  will  then  be 
so  much  occupied  with  guarding  their  own  independence 
and  existence  that  no  time  will  remain  for  them  to  fashion 
the  destinies  of  other  peoples. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


POSITION  OF  THE  UKRAINIANS 
IN  GALICIA 

BY 

YAROSLAV  FEDORTCHUK. 


[Yaroslaw  Fedortchuk.   Has  worked  in  French  press  for  the  liberation 
of  Ukraine.    Connected  with  Courrier  Europden,   Paris.] 


Let  us  now  consider  the  Ukrainians  that  belong  to 
Austria-Hungary.  Although  since  1772  they  have  been 
Austrian,  they  have,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  remained  under 
Polish  "patronage." 

The  Austrian  Government,  after  its  occupation  of  Ga- 
licia,  attempted  the  task  of  helping  the  Rutheno-Ukrai- 
nians  to  organize  themselves.  They  limited  the  power 
which  the  great  Polish  landowners  exercised  over  their 
Ukrainians  serfs;  they  opened  Ukrainian  schools  and 
gave  them  a  first  bishopric  of  their  own.  During  the 
revolution  of  1848  the  Austrian  Government  sought, 
against  the  Poles  and  the  Hungarians,  the  support  of  the 
Ukrainians,  and  promised  them  the  division  of  Galicia 
into  two  parts  nationally  distinct,  the  introduction  of 
teaching  in  the  Ukrainian  language  throughout  their  own 
schools,  and  finally  the  enfranchisement  of  the  peasants 
from  a  state  of  serfdom. 

Having  crushed  the  revolution  the  Government  abol- 
ished serfdom,  but  took  no  further  notice  of  the  other 

63 


54  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

Ukrainian  claims.  The  Poles  extended  in  the  meantime 
their  hold  over  Galicia,  and  in  1873  they  made  a  secret 
compact  with  the  Government,  which  assured  them  the 
supremacy  in  Galicia.  The  Government  appointed  to  the 
Cabinet  a  Polish  minister  without  portfolio,  who  is  de- 
pendent entirely  upon  the  Polish  deputies  and  is  respon- 
sible to  them.  Thus,  without  any  constitutional  decision 
and  without  the  sanction  of  Parliament,  the  Poles  have 
been  granted  a  Polish  minister  who  represents  the  Polish 
interests  in  Galicia.  The  Ukrainians  are  regarded  as 
being  a  part  of  the  Polish  nation,  and  subject  to  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  Poles. 

The  Ukrainians  of  Austria  are  treated  as  a  second-rate 
nationality,  and  the  Poles  exploit  their  privileged  posi- 
tion. The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  has  remained 
throughout  his  life  under  the  influence  of  the  Polish 
noblemen,  who  have  calumniated  the  Ukrainian  move- 
ment and  denounced  it  as  dangerous  to  the  security  of 
the  state.  All  the  economic  forces  of  the  provinces  are 
utilized  by  the  Poles  to  weaken  the  Ukrainians,  to  main- 
tain them  in  a  state  of  subjection  and  of  economic,  in- 
tellectual, and  political  inferiority.  The  Austrian  Gov- 
ernment have  a  secret  fund  at  their  disposal,  and  have 
dispensed  during  the  last  seven  years  four  million  crowns 
to  help  the  Polish  deputies  against  the  Ukrainian  depu- 
ties. The  Governor  of  Galicia,  Bobrzynski,  did  not  hide 
i!'e  fact  that  during  the  last  elections  he  spent  only 
4,100,000  crowns  while  his  predecessor  had  spent  1,300.- 
000.  Such  facts  are  but  an  episode  illustrating  the  cor- 
ruption of  political  life  in  Austria.  The  governmental 
major! ly  in  Parliament  rests  upon  the  delegates  of  the 
great  nationalities,  while  the  smaller  nationalities  are 
handed  over  to  the  others  to  be  extenuinatcd.  For  the 
slightest  criticism  of  this  intolerable  situation  the  Ukrai- 
nian newspapers  are  confiscated  by  order  of  the  Polish 
judges.  From  the  political  sphere  in  the  control  of 
the  country  the  Ukrainians  are  excluded,  not  having  even 
the  power  to  defend  themselves  against  the  Polish  major- 


Position  of  the  Ukrainians  in  Galicia  55 

ity  either  in  the  Executive  Council  or  in  the  Diet  of  the 
province. 

From  the  administrative  point  of  view  the  Ukrainian 
language  is  hardly  tolerated,  in  spite  of  all  the  laws  which 
guarantee  the  use  of  that  language  in  all  the  provincial 
and  governmental  departments. 

In  the  intellectual  domain  it  is  enough  to  consider  the 
Ukrainian  scholastic  situation.  The  Poles  have  fifty-one 
official  secondary  schools  of  their  own;  the  Ukrainians 
five.  Of  Polish  technical  schools  there  are  fourteen,  while 
the  Ukrainians  have  none.  There  are  seventeen  Polish  and 
Polono-Ukrainian  training  colleges  for  teachers;  the 
Ukrainians  have  none  of  their  own.  The  Poles  have  two 
commercial  institutes;  the  Ukrainians  have  none.  The 
Poles  have  seven  official  industrial  schools;  the  Ukrai- 
nians have  none.  The  Poles  have  eighty  supplementary 
industrial  schools;  the  Ukrainians  have  none.  The  Poles 
have  eighteen  agricultural  schools;  the  Ukrainians  have 
none.  As  to  the  high  schools,  this  is  how  they  stand: — 
Having  5  fonns — Poles,  82;  Ukrainians,  0 
Having  6  forms — Poles,  113;  Ukrainians,  0 
Having  8  fonns — Poles,  102;  Ukrainians,  0 
In  Austria  education  is  free  and  compulsory,  and  is* 
given  in  the  mother  tongue  of  each  nationality.  We  see 
therefore  the  shameful  results  of  the  Polish  policy,  which 
refuses  the  right  to  be  taught  in  their  mother  tongue  to 
the  Ukrainians,  who  constitute,  moreover,  according  to 
the  Polish  statistics,  42.04  per  cent,  of  the  total  popul- 
ation of  Galicia.  The  Poles  have  imposed  on  the  Ukrai- 
nians, in  their  elementary  schools,  the  obligation  of  learn- 
ing Polish,  which  is  a  real  penance  to  the  Ukrainian  boy 
or  girl. 

There  are  in  Galicia  5391  elementary  schools,  of  which 
2457  are  Ukrainian  and  2909  Polish.  There  are  schools 
which  have  but  one  class  and  others  which  have  two, 
three,  four,  and  as  many  as  eight  classes.  While  the 
Ukrainian  schools  are  exclusively  confined  to  one  or  secon- 

*)  Officially.  —  Ed. 


56  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

dary  schools  composed  of  no  less  than  four  classes.  More- 
over, the  Ukrainian  schoolboys  who  leave  the  village 
elementary  school  are  refused  the  right  to  enter  the  Polish 
secondary  school  in  the  town.  There  is  one  Ukrainian 
secondary  school  for  every  681.556  Ukrainians,  while  the 
Polish  school  is  but  for  every  49,753.  The  Board  of 
Education  or  School  Council  of  the  province  is  composed 
of  27  Poles  and  5  Ukrainians,  who  are,  of  course,  unable 
to  resist  such  a  crushing  majority. 

The  Ukrainians  demand,  therefore,  the  division  of  the 
School  Council  into  two  parts — Polish  and  Ukrainian — 
so  as  to  bring  to  an  end  the  unfair  system  of  Polish  educ- 
ation for  the  Ukrainians.  The  Poles  have  also  the  ad- 
vantage of  a  Hakatist  law  of  1867,  which  forbids  the 
erection  of  any  secondary  school  unless  it  has  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Diet.  The  Polish  schools  of  the  same  degree 
can,  on  the  other  hand,  dispense  with  this  formality;  their 
opening  is  subject  to  a  decree  of  the  Minister  for  Public 
Education,  who  need  not  seek  the  authorization  of  the 
Diet.  These  two  unconstitutional  measures  are  obviously 
directed  against  the  Ukrainians,  and  the  privilege  they 
confer  upon  the  Poles  stands  to  the  shame  of  the  Austrian 
Government  which  tolerates  it.  There  is  a  second  Haka- 
tist law  of  1907,  according  to  which  neither  public  nor 
private  training  colleges  can  exist  if  they  have  a  Ukrai- 
nian character  and  cannot  deliver  valid  documents. 

No  less  serious  is  the  question  of  Lemberg  University. 
The  teaching  which  was  previously  delivered  there  in 
German  was  to  be  henceforth  delivered  in  Ukrainian. 
Gradually  professors  were  found  able  to  deliver  the 
courses  in  Ukrainian.  In  1848  the  Ukrainians  obtained 
two  chairs  at  Lemberg  University.  At  that  period  there 
was  as  yet  no  question  of  the  Polish  language  there.  In 
1862  two  more  Ukrainian  chairs  were  created,  the  other 
courses  being  still  delivered  in  German.  The  Poles  took 
advantage  of  their  privileged  situation  in  the  province,  and 
benefitted  from  the  imperial  rescript  of  1871,  which  re- 
placed the  teaching  in   German  by  teaching  in  the  two 


Position  of  the  Ukrainians  in  Galicia  57 

languages  of  the  province.  The  Poles  took  possession  of 
all  the  chairs  for  their  countrymen,  leaving  none  to  the 
Ukrainians.  They  even  tried  to  take  away  the  Ukrainian 
chairs  already  existing. 

Owing  to  the  development  of  Ukrainian  sentiment,  the 
situation  was  becoming  intolerable  in  the  University,  and 
in  1900  an  open  struggle  began. 

All  the  Ukrainian  students  left  Lemberg  University. 
The  Austrian  Government  declared  itself  prepared  to 
create  in  Lemberg  a  university  apart  for  the  Ukrainians 
on  condition  that  the  Polish  consent  could  be  obtained. 
The  Lemberg  Town  Council  at  a  solemn  sitting  refused 
to  sanction  the  creation  of  a  Ukrainian  university  in  the 
town.  The  same  Council  refused  to  assign  a  place  in  the 
town  where  the  Ukrainians  could  raise  a  monument  to 
their  greatest  patriot  and  poet,  Taras  Shevchenko.  The 
Senate  of  the  University  and  the  Polish  students  declared 
that  they  would  never  allow  the  setting  up  of  a  Ukrainian 
university  in  Lemberg.  The  conflict,  which  broke  out  in 
the  University,  brought  about  the  death  of  a  Ukrainian 
student,  who  was  struck  by  a  bullet  from  a  revolver  be- 
longing to  a  Polish  student.  The  police  arrested  three 
hundred  Ukrainian  students,  while  not  one  Pole  was 
molested.  The  courts  of  the  province,  being  in  Polish 
hands,  were  led  by  their  hatred  to  the  Ukrainians. 

Following  the  Prussian  methods  of  colonization,  the 
great  Polish  landlords,  who  own  land  in  the  Ukrainian 
part  of  Galicia,  dare  not  sell  their  land  to  the  Ukrainian 
peasants.  When  they  do  they  are  considered  as  traitors 
and  are  boycotted  by  the  Poles,  the  Polish  motto  being: 
"Not  one  foot  of  ground  to  the  Ukrainians."  The  Ukrai- 
nian peasants,  the  proletariat  of  the  agricultural  life,  are 
obliged  to  work,  for  a  miserable  pittance,  the  Ukrainian 
ground,  which  constitutes  the  domain  of  the  Polish  noble- 
men. They  are  shamefully  exploited,  and  in  case  of  re- 
sistance or  boycott  they  are  treated  like  bandits;  they  are 
chained,  flogged,  brought  barefoot  to  the  town  prisons, 
and  finally  sentenced. 


S8  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

In  order  to  find  more  humane  conditions,  the  Ukrainian 
peasants  seek  work  in  Germany,  where  they  are  better 
treated  and  better  paid.  The  local  administration  of  Ga- 
licia,  which  is  controlled  by  the  Poles,  does  everything 
in  its  power  to  prevent  the  Ukrainian  workers  leaving 
the  country. 

The  representation  of  the  Ukrainian  nation  in  Parlia- 
ment includes,  since  1907,  the  twenty-eight  members  from 
Galicia  (26.4  per  cent.).  One  Ukrainian  member  repre- 
sents 110,000  inhabitants.  The  Poles  have  seventy-eight 
members  (73.6  per  cent.),  each  Polish  member  repre- 
senting 51,000  Polish  inhabitants.  The  Province  of  Bu- 
kovina  sends  five  Ukrainian  members  to  the  same  Vienna 
Parliament. 

In  the  Lemberg  Diet  the  electoral  law  of  1861  granted 
the  Ukrainians  forty-seven  deputies,  that  is,  33.33  per 
cent.  Today,  after  the  compromise  arrived  at  between 
the  Poles  and  Ukrainians,  the  latter  will  have  only  27.2 
per  cent.;  that  is,  62  Ukrainians  deputies  out  of  a  total 
number  of  228  deputies  in  the  Diet.  In  Bukovina  the 
Ukrainians  have  but  17  deputies  of  their  own,  in  spite  of 
their  numerical  superiority,  while  the  Roumanians  have 
twenty-three. 

On  February  15th,  1914,  a  scheme  of  electoral  reform 
for  the  Lemberg  Diet  was  passed,  but  does  not  constitute, 
properly  speaking,  a  Ukraino-Polish  agreement.  It  does 
not  remove  the  Polish  domination,  which  weighs  heavily 
emancipation  of  the  Ukrainians  from  the  Polish  political 
independence.  The  struggle  will  be  carried  on  according 
to  circumstances,  and  more  or  less  bitterly  in  proportion 
to  the  degree  of  Polish  resistance  against  the  gradual 
emancipation  of  the  Ukrainians  form  the  Polish  political 
supremacy.  For  many  centuries  the  Polish  Republic  re- 
fused to  recognize  the  existence  of  a  distinct  Ukrainian 
nationality.  Today  the  Poles  find  themselves  in  the  pre- 
sence of  a  fait  accompli.  They  must  needs  bow  before 
the  evidence  that  the  Ukrainian  nationality  is  freeing  it- 
self from  their  domination. 


Position  of  the  Ukrainians  in  Galicia  59 

The  new  electoral  reform  of  February,  1914,  has  not 
changed  the  old  foniis  of  the  Curiae,  in  spite  of  the 
Ukrainian  demand  for  electoral  reform  based  upon  the 
democratic  principle  of  universal  suffrage. 

In  Western  Galicia,  the  Polish  half  of  the  province,  each 
district  has  a  member  to  itself.  In  Eastern  Galicia  the 
Poles  have  taken  pains  to  save  the  Polish  minorities.  This 
electoral  reform  of  February,  1914,  guarantees  to  an  in- 
finitesimal Polish  minority,  which  inhabits  Ukrainian 
soil,  an  aggregate  of  eighty-seven  Polish  seats  against 
sixty-two  for  the  Ukrainians.  On  their  own  territory  the 
Ukrainians  are  reduced  to  a  minority  in  the  representation. 


CHAPTER  V. 


UKRAINIAN  ASPIRATIONS  IN  AUSTRIA 

BY 

DR.  LONGIN  TZEGELSKY. 

a  Representative  in  the  Austrian  Parliament. 

(Les  annales  des  nationalities,  Paris,   March-April,   1913). 


There  are  more  than  four  million  Ukrainians  in 
Austro-Hungary.  They  number  about  500,000  in  the 
north-east  provinces  of  Hungary  and  about  300,000  in  the 
north-west  of  Bukovina,  while  the  remainder  live  in  East- 
ern Galicia.  They  are  officially  called  Ruthenians  in 
Austria,  from  the  Latin  word  "Rutheni,"  which  has  pre- 
sei-ved  itself  since  the  Middle  Ages.  Divided  by  the  pol- 
itical regime,  the  Ukrainians  of  Hungary  and  those  of 
Austria  live  under  entirely  different  conditions.  On  one 
hand  they  are  oppressed  by  the  brutality  of  the  central- 
istic  tendencies  of  the  Hungarians;  on  the  other,  they  en- 
joy some  liberty  under  the  Austrian  government,  which 
recognizes  to  some  extent  the  right  of  autonomy  of  various 
nationalities  living  within  its  boundaries.  Owing  to  these 
different  political  systems,  each  of  the  three  parts  of 
Ukraine  in  Austria-Hungary  leads  a  different  life.  The 
bulk  of  the  Ukrainians  of  these  two  countries  occupy 
Galicia,  and  for  this  reason  we  shall  discuss  here  matters 
principally  concerning  the  Ukrainians  of  Austria,  mention- 
ing those  of  Hungary  only  as  occasion  arises. 

60 


Ukrainian  Aspiration  in  Austria  61 

The  Ukrainians  are  not  the  sole  inhabitants  of  Galicia; 
there  are  Poles,  Jews  and  Germans  also  living  in  this 
province.  The  Poles  predominate  to  the  west  of  the  rivers 
San  and  Vistula,  in  the  territory  which  after  the  partition 
of  Poland  was  artificially  annexed  to  Galicia  proper,  or 
the  ancient  municipality  of  Halich.  They  are  spread  over 
Eastern  Galicia  as  great  estate  owners,  as  middle  class, 
and  as  officials,  and  there  they  form  24%  of  the  entire 
population. 

The  Jews,  whose  language  is  a  mixture  of  a  German 
jargon  with  Slavonic  and  old  Hebrew  words,  constitute 
an  isolated  nationalistic  group,  and  make  their  living  by 
engaging  in  petty  and  wholesale  trade.  Their  total  num- 
ber in  Galicia  is  900,000,  or  about  11%.  The  Germans 
form  but  a  hundredth  part  of  the  whole  population.  The 
territory  to  the  east  of  the  San  and  Vistula  has  been  oc- 
cupied by  the  Ukrainian  masses  exclusively  since  the  im- 
memorial, but  at  present  they  form  63%  of  the  population. 
Here  historical  causes  have  created  a  vast  mass  of  com- 
plicated social  relations  on  account  of  different  religions, 
nationalities  and  social  conditions.  Up  to  the  present 
time,  the  dominant  classes,  the  well-to-do  and  middle 
classes  and  the  land  owners,  consist  of  Poles,  adherents 
of  the  Catholic  faith,  while  the  Ukrainians  are  Uniats; 
that  is  to  say,  while  they  are  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and 
united  to  Rome,  they  still  have  Slavonic  rites.  They  are 
mainly  soil-tillers  of  the  villages  and  fanns  and  they  work 
on  the  fields  of  the  great  Polish  landowners. 

Lately,  however,  this  social,  national,  and  religious  dis- 
tribution has  begun  to  change  slightly  because  the  Ukrai- 
nians show  a  tendency  to  forsake  the  village  and  give 
themselves  to  trades  and  professions;  they  enter  the 
State  service,  flock  to  the  cities,  and  study  arts.  In  spite 
of  all  this,  the  relations  between  the  various  nationalities, 
religions,  and  classes  remain  as  they  were  destined  to  be 
by  history.  Austrian  policy  has  yielded  to  these  historical 
facts  and  has  placed  the  government  of  Galicia  into  Pol- 
ish hands. 


62  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

During  the  very  first  years  which  followed  the  occup- 
ation of  the  province  by  Austrians,  just  as  in  1848,  when 
the  Poles  proclaimed  their  revolutionary  demands,  the 
Austrian  government  set  out  to  support  the  Ukrainians, 
looking  for  their  aid  against  the  Polish  revolutionists. 
After  the  Crimean  War,  the  relations  between  Russia  and 
Austria  became  hostile.  The  Poles,  whose  revolution  of 
1863  had  failed,  were  now  soliciting  Austria's  aid.  These 
two  causes  have  produced  a  new  change  in  the  political 
conditions  and  the  lives  of  the  two  Galician  nations.  The 
Austrian  constitution  of  1867  tries  to  reconcile  the  power 
of  the  State  with  the  principle  of  local  autonomy;  but 
the  local  government  is  vested  in  the  hands  of  the  Poles, 
who  dominate  the  Krayovy  Seym  (Provincial  Diet)  and 
who  for  a  long  time  have  remained  the  chief  representa- 
tives of  Galicia  in  the  Vienna  Parliament.  Owing  to 
certain  election  privileges  granted  to  the  Poles,  the  local 
assembly  continued  to  be  the  Assembly  of  Nobility  (or 
the  "Shlakhta"),  which  has  in  view  the  interests  of  their 
own  class  only.  It  is  true  that  the  election  laws  awarded 
to  the  Ukrainians  from  47  to  49  places  among  the  161 
members  of  the  Diet.  But  during  election  time  the  Poles 
have  known  how  to  terrorize  the  Ukrainians,  to  assault 
them,  and  to  remove  all  desire  on  their  part  to  resist  this 
ill  treatment,  so  that  there  have  been  years  when  the 
number  of  Ukrainians  in  those  local  organizations  was 
reduced  to  one  single  representative  of  a  population  which 
had  a  predominance  both  in  number  and  in  historical 
rights.  There  are  at  present  18  Ukrainians,  15  elects,  and 
3  arciibishops  in  the  local  provincial  Assembly.  The  ad- 
ministration in  the  province  of  the  Governor  of  Galicia  is 
also  in  the  hands  of  Poles,  who  are  always  chosen  from 
among  his  Polish  supporters.  Owing  to  this  regime,  the 
national  education,  the  University  of  Lemberg,  and  the 
middle  schools  are  completely  polonized. 

The  Poles  exclude  from  the  schools  everything  that  is 
Ukrainian  and  uphold  only  the  Polish  interests. 


Ukrainian  Aspiration  in  Austria  63 

The  Ukrainians  are  penuitted  by  law  to  employ  their 
national  language  in  all  their  relations  with  the  authorities, 
but  nothing  but  Polish  is  spoken  in  these  institutions. 
Galicia  is  being  transformed  into  a  Polish  country  which 
plays  the  same  part  for  Poland  that  Piedmont  played 
for  Italy  in  the  beginning  of  the  19th  century.  The 
Ukrainians  are  being  sacrificed  to  the  welfare  of  the 
Poles.  This  state  of  affairs  is  in  complete  contradiction  to 
the  fundamental  laws  of  the  Austrian  Empire,  and  it  has 
on  the  one  hand  provoked  a  feeling  of  sympathy  towards 
Russia,  which  manifests  itself  in  a  current  of  pro-Russian 
sentiment,  and  on  the  other  created  a  lively  national 
movement,  the  popular  and  revolutionary  movement  of 
1900-1908.  It  is  this  movement  that  has  brought  the 
masses  into  action,  has  made  it  possible  for  them  to  ac- 
quire education,  and  started  thousands  of  small  national 
institutions  for  education,  co-operation,  and  national  un- 
ification; and  the  movement  has  subdivided  into  numerous 
and  very  active  political  parties  (national  democrats, 
radicals,  clericals,  social-democrats,  etc.)  and  finally 
brought  about  the  admission  into  Parliament  of  28  Ukrai- 
nian deputies  from  Galicia  and  5  from  Bukovina.  These 
representatives  have  presented  to  the  Austrian  Government 
the  grave  and  burning  questions  relative  to  the  awakening 
of  the  Ukrainians,  questions  which,  in  these  latter  days, 
have  become  of  international  importance.  We  have  but 
to  recall  here  the  bloody  struggle  during  the  elections  of 
1895-1897,  the  struggles  of  the  Ukrainian  students  to  ob- 
tain in  Lemberg  University  instruction  in  the  national 
Ukrainian  language,  the  struggle  of  the  Ukrainian  peas- 
ants against  their  Polish  lords  in  1902,  the  strike  of  the 
agricultural  laborers  in  Eastern  Galicia,  the  colossal  up- 
rising of  the  popular  masses  in  1906-1907  for  election 
reforms,  the  heated  election  of  1908,  the  attack  upon  the 
life  of  the  Governor  of  Galicia — Count  Potocki — and  the 
obstructions  created  by  the  Ukrainians  in  the  Galician 
Diet  in  1910-1912.  At  present,  the  Ukrainians  enjoy  all 
the  advantages  gained  by  the  parliamentary  electoral  re- 


64  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

form;  they  have  now  six  times  as  many  representatives 
in  Parliament  as  at  any  previous  time.  They  have  placed 
on  the  order  of  the  day  the  questions  of  a  Ukrainian 
university  at  Lemberg  and  the  reform  of  the  law  govern- 
ing elections  to  the  Diet.  These  two  questions  demand 
a  speedy  and  definite  solution,  as  the  geographical  prox- 
imity of  Galicia  to  the  Russian  boundary  makes  the  sit- 
uation grave  and  places  them  within  the  range  of  inter- 
national diplomacy. 

At  the  present  moment,  the  national  Ukrainian  move- 
ment of  Galicia  shows  every  sign  of  being  a  very  ener- 
getic attempt  for  national  emancipation  along  the  lines 
of  democracy. 

The  dearest  ambitions  of  all  intelligent  Ukrainians  are 
reduced  to  the  following  demand:  the  autonomy  of 
Austro-Hungarian  Ukraine,  i.  e.,  the  autonomy  of  the 
territory  ethnographically  known  as  Ukrainian  in  Eastern 
Galicia,  Eastern  Bukovina,  and  Northern  Hungary,  as  a 
self-governing  unit,  with  a  national  Ukrainian  Assembly 
in  Lemberg,  with  a  Ukrainian  administration,  with  the 
Ukrainian  language  introduced  into  all  governmental  in- 
stitutions, the  courts,  and  the  schools.  The  program  of 
all  Ukrainians  concedes  to  the  demands  of  all  the  other 
nationalities  which  inhabit  Ukrainian  territory  their  right 
to  use  their  national  language  in  schools  and  administra- 
tive institutions,  their  right  to  school  autonomy,  etc. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  MISRULE  OF  THE  POLISH 
ARISTOCRACY 


SIMON  0.  POLLOCK. 


[Simon  Oscar  Pollock,  L/awyer;  Moscow  University,  1885;  Dorpat  Uni- 
versity, 1888;  studied  law  in  New  York  University;  admitted  to 
the  bar,  1897;  counsel  for  Political  Refugees'  Defence  I^eague,  New 
York.   Author:  Russian  Bastille,   1908.] 


I.  The  Polish  Landlord  and  the  Ukrainian  Peasant. 

The  conclusions  reached  by  the  foregoing  authorities 
are  based  on  historical  data,  a  review  of  which  becomes 
necessary  for  the  proper  understanding  of  present-day 
conditions  in  Galicia. 

These  are  a  result  of  acts  of  legislation  and  of  administ- 
rative regulations  in  agrarian  matters  enacted  by  the  Pol- 
ish nobility  in  the  past,  mostly  with  the  acquiescence  of 
the  Austrian  Government.  Consequently,  the  forests  and 
the  pastures  formerly  owned  in  common  by  the  nobility 
and  peasantry  have  gradually  become  the  property  of  the 
members  of  the  Shiakhta  (Polish  nobility). 

This  concentration  of  the  pastures  and  forests  neces- 
sarily led  to  an  easier  acquisition  of  the  lands  of  the 
peasantry  by  the  Shiakhta. 

5  65 


66  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

Deputy  V.  Budzynowsky,  in  a  speech  in  tlie  Austrian 
Parliament,  called  this  policy  a  "robbers'  policy."  It  be- 
gan with  the  Law  of  the  10th  of  September,  1782,  which 
placed  the  management  of  the  common  rural  properties 
in  the  hands  of  the  rich  landlords,  who  were  nobles. 

Subsequently,  by  trick  and  subterfuge,  the  peasants 
were  induced  to  abandon  some  of  the  rights  they  had  in 
these  properties.  The  tax  officials  often  announced  heavy 
taxes  upon  sucn  lands,  to  avoid  payment  of  which  the 
peasants  were  compelled  to  abandon  their  rights  of  owner- 
ship or  possession.  After  the  abandonment  had  taken 
place,  and  the  lands  had  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
nobles,  the  threatened  taxes  were  not  imposed.  This  so- 
called  tax  policy  was  begun  in  1786,  when  a  revision  of 
the  land  taxes  had  been  made  in  Galicia. 

At  the  beginning,  of  course,  the  peasants  were  still 
allowed  the  use  of  the  forests  and  the  pastures  for  in- 
dividual purposes.  These  rights  continued  up  to  the 
middle  of  the  last  century. 

Now  the  peasantry  own  only  16%  of  the  total  forest- 
area  of  the  country.  Since  the  10th  of  February,  1789, 
when  a  general  reapportionment  of  lands  took  place,  the 
peasantry  have  had  only  rights  of  usage  left. 

When  the  rights  of  the  nobility  to  labor  which  the  pea- 
sants as  serfs  had  to  perform  had  been  terminated,  a 
valuation  was  placed  upon  such  labor  to  the  extent  of 
70%  of  the  value  of  the  nobles'  land.  This  standard  had 
not  been  applied  when  the  peasants  were  to  be  compens- 
ated for  the  loss  of  their  servitudes.  Every  peasant  in 
order  to  establish  the  value  of  his  rights  had  to  go  to 
court.  The  local  administration  and  most  of  the  judicial 
functions  having  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  members 
of  the  Shlakhta,  it  could  not  be  expected  that  the  pea- 
sants would  succeed  in  this  litigation,  and  indeed  history 
records  that  not  less  than  32,000  law-suits  brought  by 
peasants  against  the  nobles  had  been  decided  against  the 
former.  The  various  commissions,  from  time  to  time 
appointed  by  the  Austrian  Government  for  the  purpose  of 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  67 

adjusting  the  difficulties  thus  created,  had  invariably  sided 
with  the  nobility. 

The  Reform  of  1848 — the  abolition  of  serfdom — had 
thus  simply  increased  the  economic  power  of  the  Shlakhta 
(the  nobility).  The  Law  of  1853  and  the  Order  of  1857 
allowed  the  Shlakhta  the  alternative  of  either  paying  the 
peasants  in  cash,  or  of  compensating  them  with  an  allot- 
ment of  land  for  the  loss  of  their  rights.  But  the  law  also 
provided  that  if  the  compensation  allowed  the  peasants 
would  result  in  the  weakening  of  the  domain  of  the  no- 
bility, then  the  peasants  were  compelled  to  accept  a 
smaller  compensation.  Of  course,  this  regulation  was 
largely  abused  by  the  interested  parties. 

These  methods  have  been  minutely  described  in  an 
article  "Expropriation  without  Law"  by  Deputy  V.  Bud- 
zynowsky,  in  the  "Ukrainische  Rundschau"  a  magazine 
in  German,  published  in  Vienna  (No.  5,  1908).  The  num- 
ber was  confiscated  by  the  censor.  When  it  subsequently 
appeared  in  a  censored  edition,  not  less  than  five  parts  of 
the  article  bearing  upon  the  policy  of  expropriation  had 
been  stricken  out  by  the  censor,  and  instead  of  the  erased 
parts  appeared  the  word  "Konfisziert" — confiscated! 

The  representatives  of  the  Ukrainian  peasantry  had 
often  protested  to  the  central  Government  against  the  un- 
just and  illegal  methods  adopted  by  the  administration, 
but  without  result.  In  1862,  Minister  Schmerling  issued 
an  order  directing  that  the  adjustment  of  servitudes  be 
made  "according  to  law,"  but  he  did  nothing  else  in  the 
matter  of  the  complaints.  Minister  Belchredi  went  fur- 
ther, and  openly  aided  the  Shlakhta  in  the  process  of 
expropriating  the  peasantry's  properties. 

One  of  the  results  of  this  policy  has  been  the  complete 
disappearance  in  some  districts  of  cattle-raising  among 
the  peasants.  The  former  cattle-raisers  have  become 
employees  on  the  cattle-lands  of  other  traders.  A  large 
portion  of  the  peasantry  have  become  farm-hands  on  the 
estates  of  the  nobility,  and  even  those  who  have  continued 


68  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

to  till  their  soil  have  been  compelled  to  look  for  outside 
work  in  order  to  exist. 

Having  thus  deprived  the  Ukrainian  peasant  in  Galicia 
of  his  pastures  and  lands,  the  Polish  nobility  made  him 
economically  and  politically  dependent.  As  laborer  and 
as  citizen,  he  became  subject  to  the  whims  and  caprices 
of  his  masters.  The  process  of  expropriation  had  reached 
its  culminating  point  in  the  early  nineties.  According 
to  Prof.  Hrushevsky,  whose  paper  is  given  above,  almost 
50%  of  the  valuable  land  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  no- 
bility; while  76%  of  the  Galisian  population  is  com- 
pelled to  live  on  the  proceeds  of  their  farms,  hardly  12% 
having  parcels  sufficient  to  yield  a  living.  The  average 
peasant,  not  able  to  realize  enough  to  support  himself 
and  his  family,  is  compelled  to  look  for  outside  employ- 
ment, and  when  such  employment  is  found  the  wage  is 
such  a  pittance  tnat  even  the  downtrodden  farm-hands 
were  forced  in  1902  to  strike  for  a  living  wage  and  for 
more  tolerable  conditions  (cf.  "History  of  Ukraine",  pp. 
368—370). 

It  is  not  the  object  of  this  publication  to  give  a  history 
of  the  industrial  strife  on  the  great  latifundias  of  Galicia. 
The  strike  of  1902,  however,  is  an  event  of  immense  im- 
portance, because  for  the  first  time  in  history  it  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  world  to  this  modern  bondage  in 
Eastern  Galicia.  The  Vienna  Parliament  was  compelled 
to  take  notice  of  the  strike,  since  according  to  many,  for 
example  Maurice  Lair,  the  noted  French  economist,  over 
a  hundred  thousand  men  had  taken  part  in  it,  and  it  ex- 
tended throughout  the  whole  of  Eastern  Galicia  (cf.  Anna- 
tes des  sciences  politiques,  Paris,  1903,  1904,  pp.  553,  702). 

In  a  speech  delivered  by  Ignatz  Dashynski,  M.  P.,  in 
the  Austrian  Parliament,  on  October  28th,  1902,  in  which 
an  interpellation  had  been  made  to  the  government  about 
the  strike,  the  impartial  Polish  orator  had  portrayed  a 
state  of  affairs  hardly  to  be  forgotten.  With  figures 
taken  from  conservative  Polisli  sources,  he  proved  that 
the  peasants  have  been  pauperized;  that  they  can  hardly 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  69 

pay  the  smallest  land  tax;  that  some  of  their  holdings 
hardly  reach  1%  acres;  that  94%  of  the  peasants  in  some 
districts  have  a  net  income  from  their  farms  of  only  from 
10  to  50  florins  (a  florin  is  20  cents)  ;  that  in  some  dis- 
tricts the  class  of  the  very  poor  totals  86%,  and  that  the 
candidates  for  starvation  in  the  average  Galician  village 
average  as  high  as  86%  to  94%;  that  out  of  7,200,000 
people,  there  are  only  65,000  who  possess  an  income  of 
over  500  florins  ($100)  a  year;  that  of  every  1000  persons 
only  nine  can  contribute  the  tax;  and  that  the  number  of 
people  whose  yearly  income  reaches  5,000  florins  ($1,000) 
totals  altogether  1,933  out  of  7,000,000.  This  last  figure 
includes  the  nobility! 

Dashynski  also  proved  that  many  of  the  peasants  do 
not  eat  bread,  at  least  during  one  half  of  the  year,  and 
that  during  the  other  half  they  eat  little  of  it,  and  that 
of  the  worst  sort.  A  specimen  of  this  bread  the  orator 
exhibited  to  the  members  of  Parliament. 

Not  surprising  then  is  the  statement  of  Duke  de  Puzina 
Kozielko,  President  of  the  Scientific  Academy  in  Cracow, 
that  in  some  parts  of  the  country  a  new  kind  of  serfdom 
has  been  introduced  by  the  noblemen  systematically  as 
a  class  that  "as  a  plague  it  spreads  from  one  individual 
to  another  and  disfigures  the  entire  territory  and  the 
districts  of  the  eastern  part  of  the  country." 

The  wages  on  the  various  estates  ranged  from  12  to  45 
kreutzers  per  day,  without  board  (a  kreutzer  is  %  cent), 
while  where  peasants  were  employed  by  the  year  they 
paid  between  18  and  25  florins  (a  florin  is  20  cents), 
were  paid  between  18  and  25  florins  for  the  entire  year, 

The  strike  broke  out  spontaneously,  and  Dashynski 
shows  that  the  laborers  had  been  summarily  treated  by 
the  district  supreme  officials;  that  men,  women  and  child- 
ren were  placed  under  arrest,  brought  in  irons  to  prison, 
kept  there  for  months,  and,  when  finally  tried,  either  dis- 
charged or  found  guilty  of  trivial  violations  of  the  so- 
called  Laws  of  Assembly  and  fined.  At  times,  they  were 
prosecuted  under  statutes  long  repealed. 


70  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

When  Deputy  Vitik  published  a  booklet  in  which  he 
instructed  the  farm-hands  as  to  their  rights  in  these 
matters,  it  was  confiscated  by  the  gendarmes,  although 
no  order  for  its  confiscation  had  been  issued  by  the  censor. 
The  speaker  quotes  numerous  orders  of  the  district  offi- 
cials forbidding  meetings  and  shows  that  these  orders 
had  been  issued  in  violation  of  law  and  without  authority. 

Time  and  again,  when  individual  owners  expressed 
their  willingness  to  grant  the  demands  of  the  strikers,  or 
had  granted  them,  the  district  officials  had  forbidden  the 
carrying  out  of  the  arrangements. 

One  need  not  wonder  at  this  seiTility.  The  supreme 
administrative  officials  and  the  great  majority  of  the 
judges  are  members  of  the  Shlakhta.  The  leading  noble- 
men controlled  the  elections  and  were  in  the  majority  in 
the  Diet,  since  2000  nobles  had  the  right  to  elect  more 
representatives  to  the  Diet  than  the  6,000,000  peasants. 
Noblemen  were  in  this  way  elected  by  a  mere  handful 
of  votes.  Thus  David  Abrahamovitch,  president  of  the 
Polish  Club,  was  elected  by  31  voters,  Eugen  Abrahamo- 
vitch by  48  voters,  Blashovski  by  30  voters,  Chaykovsky 
by  24  voters.  Check  by  27  voters,  Gurski  by  32  voters, 
Appolinar  von  Yavorski  by  43  voters,  Yendzeyovich  by  43 
voters,  Kozlovski  by  20  voters  and  Count  Vodzytski  by 
37  voters,  while  a  deputy  of  the  peasantry  often  represent- 
ed not  less  than  100,000  peasants. 

The  cry  raised  during  the  strike  was  so  impossible  to 
ignore  that  the  Governor  demanded  from  every  district 
supreme  officer  a  report  on  its  causes,  progress,  and  re- 
sults. But  when  Mr.  Vienarski  of  the  District  of  Peremi- 
shlany  wrote  that  misery  was  the  cause  of  the  strike  and 
that  unheard-of  abuses  had  been  practised,  the  Governor 
sent  the  report  back  (cf.  Records  of  the  Austrian  Parlia- 
ment, Lower  House,  Oct.  28,  1902). 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  71 

II.  Galician  Elections. 

The  agricultural  strike  resulted  in  some  improvements 
in  the  lot  of  the  farm-hands.  The  peasants  were  en- 
couraged in  their  national  aspirations.  A  new  era  seem- 
ed to  be  dawning  upon  them.  The  Galician  administra- 
tion, however,  continued  to  serve  the  nobility  in  its  crus- 
ade to  frustrate  any  new  efforts  towards  amelioration. 
The  Polish  aristocracy  never  ceased  to  realize  that  should 
the  Ukrainians  be  allowed  full  exercise  of  their  suffrage, 
its  power  would  eventually  be  curtailed.  Hence  the  con- 
tinuous and  unscrupulous  efforts  to  keep  the  peasant  re- 
presentatives from  the  Diet  and  from  Parliament,  efforts 
which  made  the  Galician  elections  a  by-word. 

Fraud  of  all  kinds,  violence,  corruption,  forgeiy,  steal- 
ing of  votes,  abuse  of  power,  abuse  of  judicial  proceedings, 
use  of  gendannes  and  of  soldiers,  and  violations  of  every 
rule  and  regulation  of  the  election  laws  have  been 
systematic  throughout  the  land  and  have  been  reduced  to 
a  science.  Protests  to  the  Governors,  in  the  press  and  at 
public  meetings,  to  the  Prime  Ministers  and  to  the  Em- 
peror in  the  Diet  and  in  Parliament  have  been  repeat- 
edly made,  but  with  no  result. 

A  literature  has  grown  up  round  the  subject  of  the  Ga- 
lician elections,  consisting  of  books,  pamphlets  and  trea- 
tises, in  which  some  give  their  own  personal  experiences 
as  candidates,  others  the  results  of  their  research.  The 
most  noted  of  these  books  is  that  written  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Rappaport,  a  candidate  in  one  of  the  districts  in  Ga- 
licia.  But  the  most  remarkable  presentation  was  made 
by  Mr.  G.  Tzehlynsky,  M.  P.,  a  Deputy  from  the  Peremysl 
District  in  Parliament,  on  May  20th,  1908,  on  an  ur- 
gent motion  addressed  to  the  government  on  the  subject 
of  the  Galician  administrative  system  of  elections  and  its 
abuses  (cf.  Records  of  the  Austrian  Parliament,  Lower 
House,  May  20,  1908,  p.  4683).  This  motion  was 
rejected  owing  to  the  vote  of  the  Polish  Club   (i.  e.  the 


72  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

Polish  representatives  in  Parliament,  excluding  the  Socia- 
lists), 

Referring  to  the  other  protests  made  by  him  and  other 
representatives  on  previous  occasions,  he  calls  the  evil 
"the  Galician  Maladministration,"  and  claims  that  com- 
pliance with  the  law  in  Galicia  is  an  exception  and  a 
favor.  He  defines  the  conditions  in  Galicia  as  feudal; 
shows  that  there  are  only  a  few  Ukrainian  judges  in  the 
territory  and  that  all  administrative  offices  are  filled  by 
men  who  do  not  represent  the  Ukrainians;  that  even  in 
local  communities  where  a  Ukrainian  mayor  may  be 
elected,  the  district  administration  interferes  with  the 
elections  and  the  mayor  continues  in  office  after  his  suc- 
cessor has  been  elected,  if  the  latter  is  not  agreeable  to 
the  higher  administration.  The  Deputy  shows  that  such 
officials  form  a  large  percentage.  Decisions  rendered  by 
the  local  administration  are  repealed  by  the  higher  auth- 
orities, if  these  decisions  disagree  with  their  policy. 

The  Deputy  quotes  an  order  issued  by  Governor 
Potocki  in  1907,  in  which  a  direction  has  been  made  for 
new  elections  in  all  places  where  these  "perpetual"  local 
Councils  and  mayors  were  found.  But  the  elections  to 
the  Diet  and  to  Parliament  were  drawing  near  and  the 
District  Administrators,  were  they  to  obey  the  Governor's 
order,  would  have  deprived  themselves  of  most  valuable 
helpers.  The  Governor  therefore  did  not  press  his  order 
and  conditions  remained  as  they  were  before. 

Referring  to  previous  similar  interpellations  the  De- 
puty says:  "But  what  is  most  disgusting,  to  use  a  mild 
expression,  is  the  fact  that  the  Galician  administration, 
through  the  Supreme  Administrators  and  District  Coun- 
cils, has  not  hesitated  to  utilize  the  greatest  misery  of  the 
people  for  their  party  purposes." 

The  speaker  recites  misappropriation  of  funds,  assigned 
for  the  aid  of  the  poor  who  had  sustained  damage  through 
hail-storms  or  other  disasters  of  the  kind,  for  political 
purposes.     lie   quotes   instances   in   fourteen   villages   of 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  73 

such  misappropriations  of  funds  designated  to  help  the 
poor. 

The  Deputy  says  frankly  that  he  does  not  entertain  any 
hope  of  putting  an  immediate  end  to  the  abuses,  but  he 
looks  at  least  for  temporary  relief. 

Coming  down  to  the  description  of  the  system  of  elec- 
tion funds,  the  speaker  says,  "History  cannot  show  the 
remotest  analogy  to  it.  The  elections  are  only  a  shame- 
ful, brutal  game  played  at  the  expense  of  a  defenceless 
people  by  the  nobility;  a  game  that  can  be  compared  with 
the  Spanish  bull-fights." 

The  following  are  the  methods  used  in  Galicia: 

The  lists  of  voters  are  falsified.  This  has  been  found  to 
be  a  fact  in  every  place  of  Eastern  Galicia. 

In  villages  where  the  administrators  know  that  their 
influence  will  extend  to  a  large  number  of  voters,  the 
list  will  contain  names  of  those  who  under  the  law 
are  not  entitled  to  a  vote.  On  the  other  hand,  where 
this  contingency  does  not  exist,  the  list  of  voters  will  con- 
tain a  number  of  voters  substantially  smaller  than  the 
number  allowed  by  law.  Thus  in  many  localities  many 
thousands  of  voters  lose  their  vote. 

The  voters'  lists  are  not  exhibited  for  public  inspec- 
tion as  the  law  requires  and  the  inhabitants  time  and 
again  threaten  force  to  procure  lists  from  the  village 
secretaries,  only  to  learn  that  while  some  of  them  are 
not  on  the  list  others  not  entitled  to  vote  are.  When  on 
the  appeal  to  the  Supreme  iVdministrators  the  lists  are 
protested,  the  illegal  list  is  sustained.  On  one  occasion 
an  appeal  was  taken  to  the  Governor,  who  sent  a 
delegate  to  correct  the  list;  the  correction  resulted  in  re- 
taining on  the  list  the  people  who  had  no  right  to  vote, 
while  forty  who  were  entitled  to  the  vote  were  stricken 
off  the  register. 

In  some  villages,  the  Ukrainians  in  disgust  have  re- 
fused to  avail  themselves  of  the  suffrage. 

In  a  great  many  villages,  the  officials  have  kept  two 
registers,  one  for  exhibition,  another  for  official  use. 


74  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

In  one  district,  32  protests  against  the  register  were 
filed.  The  Mayor  disregarded  the  protest,  as  did  also 
the  District  Administrator.  When  the  villagers  became 
indignant,  the  administrator  sent  the  tax  collector  to 
appease  them.  The  result  was  that  all  were  dispersed 
and  the  elections  once  more  took  a  turn  favorable  to  the 
nobility.  In  some  places,  the  register  did  not  contain 
one  Ukrainian  voter. 

To  a  complaint  of  Dr.  Savchak,  the  people's  candidate, 
the  District  Supreme  Administrator,  replied  that  the  me- 
thod appealed  from  was  approved  by  the  Governor.  Many 
times  the  registers  had  been  changed  during  or  after 
election.  Many  registers  contained  names  of  people  long 
before  naturalized  in  the  United  States  and  residing  there. 
In  some  cases,  dead  men  were  on  the  list.  The  speaker 
notes  as  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  dead  were  unanimous 
in  voting  for  the  nobility's  candidate. 

Another  method  in  the  administration  of  elections  is 
the  forcible  refusal  of  their  votes  to  many  voters,  if  on 
previous  occasions  they  have  not  voted  for  the  nobility's 
candidates. 

The  officers  who  conduct  the  elections  are  always 
armed  and  accompanied  by  gendarmes.  They  arrive  at 
the  voting-places  unexpectedly  and  take  the  peasants  un- 
awares, seldom  coming  at  the  time  announced  for  the 
election — all  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  the  smallest 
number  of  voters;  and  in  that  way,  as  it  were,  stab  the 
community.  According  to  the  law,  all  voters  must  be 
admitted  to  the  polling  places;  the  peasants,  however, 
are  driven  out.  As  soon  as  the  desired  candidate  re- 
ceives the  necessary  majority,  the  elections  are  closed. 
But  should  the  voters  cast  their  ballots  as  a  unit  and  in 
favor  of  their  own  candidate,  the  elections  are  postponed, 
only  to  be  renewed  when  the  desired  proper  support  is 
at  hand. 

At  the  count,  the  majority  becomes  the  minority.  It 
has  become  a  proverb  that  during  election  time  two  and 
two  make   eighteen.     Time   and   again,   the   election   has 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  75 

not  taken  place  on  the  day  announced  in  the  order,  or  the 
day  has  been  known  to  the  desired  contingent  only.  On 
many  occasions,  the  election  of  the  people's  candidate 
has  been  announced  upon  the  count,  but  the  administrator 
has  reported  the  election  of  the  nobility's  candidate. 

Deputy  Tzehlinsky  says:  "On  many  occasions  the  in- 
efficiency of  the  Galician  Administration  has  been  proved 
also  by  a  lack  of  paper.  In  one  village,  the  officer  con- 
ducting the  election  ordered  everyone  to  vote  for  one 
candidate  only,  namely  the  candidate  of  the  Mayor,  giv- 
ing as  a  reason  that  he  did  not  have  enough  paper  to 
enter  all  voters." 

In  many  instances,  the  place  of  the  election  has  not 
been  mentioned  in  the  order. 

Where  the  indignation  caused  by  such  methods  has 
run  high,  the  gendarmes  with  bayonets  have  been  on  the 
spot  to  dampen  it.  In  a  few  instances,  the  local  mayors 
have  refused  to  certify  the  results  by  their  signature.  In 
such  cases,  their  seal  has  been  forcibly  attached  to  the 
paper  instead  of  their  signature. 

Under  the  law,  every  party  has  a  right  to  send  a  re- 
presentative to  be  present  at  the  counting  of  the  votes. 
But  often  they  have  not  been  admitted  to  the  count. 

The  gendarmes  have  been  a  useful  asset  to  the  admini- 
stration during  elections  in  checking  the  indignation  of 
the  people,  and  in  enforcing  the  illegal  methods  practised 
by  it. 

As  a  result  of  the  use  of  the  gendarmes,  in  one  town, 
Peremishlany,  97  per  cent,  of  the  local  voters  were  ex- 
cluded; which  means  that  out  of  500  men  only  15  voted. 
The  cheated  voters  appealed  by  telegraph  to  the  Prime 
Minister  and  to  their  leader  in  Parliament,  but  in  vain. 
In  other  instances,  judicial  proceedings  of  various  kinds 
and  of  an  annoying  character  have  been  invoked  to  keep 
undesirable  voters  from  the  ballot-box,  and  they  have  been 
either  subpoenaed  as  defendants  or  as  witnesses,  under 
a  penalty  of  10  crowns  or  a  day's  imprisonment. 


76  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

Prior  to  elections  concessions  enjoyed  by  certain  peas- 
ants would  be  taken  away  for  the  purpose  of  embaras- 
sing  the  voters,  or  a  high  tax  would  be  threatened. 

The  methods  described,  according  to  this  speaker,  pre- 
vail in  hundreds  of  villages.  He  shows  that  these 
methods  have  been  inspired  by  the  Supreme  Administra- 
tors of  the  districts,  and  time  and  again  rehearsed  before 
election,  to  assure  their  continuance  in  office. 

These  methods,  intended  to  defeat  the  oppositional  dele- 
gates and  displace  them  by  such  as  are  friendly  towards 
the  Government,  have  taken  place  everywhere. 

"In  my  description  thus  far,"  he  says,  "I  have  drawn 
only  a  rough  sketch  of  bare  facts,  without  going  into  dis- 
gusting details,  such  as  threats  on  the  part  of  the  adminis- 
trative authorities,  numerous  arrests,  the  suspension  of  dis- 
obedient mayors,  corruption  with  money  and  material  pro- 
mises, more  drastic  collection  of  taxes  and  more  seizures 
at  the  time  of  election;  incidents  that  form  part  of  the 
spectacle  played  during  the  Galician  elections. 

"The  Ukrainians,  having  advanced  in  the  consciousness 
of  their  nationality  and  their  rights,  have  felt  more  and 
more  deeply  the  lawlessness  with  which  elections  have 
been  carried  on.  The  Galician  Administration  still  ima- 
gine that  they  have  to  do  with  serfs  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
addled,  poor,  and  without  will  of  their  own. 

"When  the  results  of  the  election  in  the  group  of  the 
Galician  rural  communities  had  been  published,  the 
Polish  press,  especially  the  Pan-Polish  or  so-called  Na- 
tional Democratic  press,  rejoiced  loudly  that  the  Polish 
civilization,  thousands  of  years  old,  had  defeated  the  bar- 
barism of  the  Ukrainians;  that  the  rays  of  Polish  en- 
lightenment had  thus  permeated  the  remotest  and  deepest 
stratum,  and  had  done  away  with  the  Ukrainian  opposi- 
tion." 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  77 

III.  The  Ukrainian  Revolt  in  Galicia. 

The  Ukrainians  of  Galicia  have  not  remained  silent  in 
their  endeavor  to  create  an  independent  national  life.  Ef- 
forts on  behalf  of  national  education  have  created  a  large 
number  of  intellectuals  who  have  dedicated  themselves  to 
various  professions  and  subsequently  became  leaders  in 
the  national  revival. 

Oppressed  and  persecuted,  deprived  of  all  opportunities 
enjoyed  by  other  nationalities  in  Austria,  the  Ukrainians 
did  not  at  first  enjoy  a  widespread  movement.  Scattered 
throughout  the  land,  the  small  groups  however  grew  in 
numbers  and  in  influence,  and  in  the  year  1890,  M.  Draho- 
manov,  a  prominent  professor  and  Russian  exile,  residing 
in  Switzerland,  founded  the  Ukrainian  Radical  Party  of 
Galicia.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  real  democratic 
movement  among  the  Ukrainians  in  Galicia.  The  party  de- 
manded a  democratic  reorganization  of  Austria  on  federal 
lines  with  national  autonomy  for  every  race  which  inhabits 
Austria.  It  had  branches  in  various  cities  of  Galicia  and 
developed  a  lively  agitation. 

Simultaneously,  an  unsuccessful  effort  was  made  by 
the  Ukrainians  under  the  leadership  of  Representatives 
J.  Romanchuk,  Rev.  Nicholas  Sichinsky,  and  M.  Telichev- 
sky  to  compromise  with  the  Polish  Administration  of  the 
province,  with  the  view  of  obtaining  concessions  and  se- 
curing honest  elections.  Following  the  failure  to  effect 
a  compiomise,  a  great  deputation  of  Ukrainian  peasants 
came  to  the  Emperor's  palace  in  1895  asking  for  help  and 
begging  for  the  rights  of  man.  Count  Radeni,  then  Gover- 
nor of  Galicia,  and  Minister  Relinski  did  no  allow  the  peas- 
ants to  present  their  petition  to  the  Emperor,  and  dis- 
missed them  with  the  advice  "to  go  home."  This  preceded 
the  bloodshed  of  1897,  when  under  Count  Radeni,  as  Prime 
Minister,  the  first  conflict  between  the  Polish  Administra- 
tion and  the  Ukrainian  peasantry  took  place,  during  the 
elections  to  the  Diet.  Eight  Ukrainians  were  killed  by  the 
gendarmes,  many  wounded,  and  seven  hundred  arrested. 


78  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

The  nobility  triumphed  at  the  election  (cf.  Records  of  the 
Austrian  Parliament,  Lower  House,  May  26,  1908). 

In  1900,  the  Ukrainian  National  Democratic  Party  and 
the  Social  Democratic  Party  of  Galicia  were  organized. 
The  Radical  Ukrainian  Party  and  the  National  Democ- 
ratic Party  are  represented  in  the  so-called  Ukrainian 
Club  in  Parliament.  While  the  Social  Democratic  Party 
is  not  represented  in  the  Club,  it  has  always  sided  with 
it  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  rights  of  the  Ukrai- 
nian nationality. 

These  parties  demand  the  division  of  Galicia  into  two 
provinces.  Eastern  and  Western,  with  two  Diets,  the 
Eastern  being  generally  Ukrainian,  the  Western  mostly 
Polish.  They  also  demand  universal,  direct,  and  secret 
suffrage  for  the  local,  county,  provincial,  and  state  legis- 
lative bodies,  freedom  of  speech,  press,  assembly,  and 
organization ;  agricultural  reforms  aiming  at  the  uplifting 
of  the  peasantry,  and  the  extension  of  its  holdings. 
*  *  * 

The  Ukrainian  organizations  in  Galicia  soon  became 
factors  in  the  province.  The  great  strike  of  the  farm- 
hands in  1902,  which  was  so  minutely  described  by  De- 
puty Dashynski  in  Parliament,  was  partly  due  to  their 
agitation.  In  this  apparently  industrial  movement  the 
nobility,  through  the  efforts  of  Count  Potocki,  followed 
methods  of  oppression,  not  only  with  the  view  of  sup- 
pressing the  strike  but  largely  because  the  strike  had 
a  strong  national  color. 

The  measures  adopted  by  the  nobility  were  not  for- 
gotten. 

Ukrainian  intellectuals  did  not  fail  to  respond  to  the 
general  upheaval.  Students'  and  teachers'  organizations 
had  been  founded  and  educational  demands  of  a  national 
character  promulgated. 

The  city  of  Lemberg,  capital  of  Galicia,  had  become 
a    hotbed    of   political    demonstrations    organized    by    the 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  79 

Ukrainian  parties.  These  took  place  at  the  University  in 
1900,  1902,  1905,  1906,  1907,  and  1908  and  have  continued 
in  recent  years,  resulting  in  blood  conflicts  with  the  up- 
holders of  the  Polish  regime,  and  in  numerous  arrests, 
fines,  and  penalties. 

The  political  demonstration  of  1904  was  particularly 
noteworthy.  Complaint  had  been  made  to  Prime  Min- 
ister Koerber,  then  visiting  Galicia,  of  the  abuses  of  power 
by  Count  Potocki  and  his  Supreme  Administrators.  The 
complaints  were  not  heeded.  Representatives  of  all  par- 
ties of  the  country,  who  then  met  in  Lemberg,  went  in 
a  body  to  the  palace  of  the  Governor,  where  the  Prime 
Minister  was  stopping.  The  demonstration  was  dispers- 
ed by  gendarmes  and  many  were  arrested. 

During  these  years  the  Galician  Administration  was 
particularly  interested  in  the  prohibition  and  persecution 
of  the  Ukrainian  association,  "Sitch,"  whose  object  was 
to  organize  volunteer  fire-guards,  and  to  spread  popular 
education.  The  administration  believed  that  these  organ- 
izations enhanced  the  movements  of  the  peasantry  and 
would  eventually  endanger  the  predominance  of  the  no- 
bility. Following  the  prohibition  of  these  organizations, 
proceedings  were  inaugurated  against  their  members  on 
various  charges  as  inciting  to  riot,  Lese  Majeste  and 
other  ofl'ences  of  a  political  character.  These  persecutions 
spread  so  widely  that  interpellations  were  made  in  the 
Diet  by  Deputy  Dr.  Olesnitzky  and  in  Parliament  by 
Deputy  B,  Yavorsky,  and  by  others,  of  course  without 
avail.  (Politische  Processe  gegen  die  Ruthenen  in  Gali- 
zien,  Ruthenische  Revue,  1905.  No.  1,  Vienna). 

With  the  year  1906  came  the  great  movement  for  uni- 
versal sufl"rage.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  movement 
was  an  echo  of  the  establishment  of  a  certain  degree  of 
constitutional  government  in  Russia,  in  1905.  It  had 
resulted  in  the  passing  of  the  law  which  granted  univer- 
sal parliamentary  suffrage  to  all  nationalities  in  Austria 
and  was  approved  by  the  Emperor. 


80  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

The  Polish  Club  in  Parliament,  backed  by  Governor 
Potocki,  consented  to  the  law  only  on  condition  that  the 
Ukrainians  should  be  entitled  to  not  more  than  one-third 
of  the  number  of  deputies  who  were  to  represent  Galicia 
in  Parliament,  although  the  Ukrainians  were  in  a 
majority.  In  that  way  3,500,000  Ukrainians  obtained  28 
mandates  while  the  same  number  of  Polish  citizens  had  78. 

The  so-called  "petrifaction"*  of  the  reform,  moreover, 
made  its  democratic  extension  in  the  future  impossible, 
without  the  consent  of  the  Poles. 

While  meetings  and  manifestations  were  held  all  over 
the  empire,  blood  was  shed  only  in  Galicia.  For  ex- 
ample, in  the  village  of  Ladske,  four  men  were  killed 
and  nine  mortally  wounded,  among  them  a  woman,  by 
the  gendarmes,  who  without  cause  were  brought  into  the 
district. 

Following  the  affair  many  were  tried  for  riot,  but  they 
were  acquitted.  An  interpellation  in  Parliament  brought 
no  result  (cf.  Records  of  the  Austrian  Parliament,  Lower 
House,  May  26,  1908). 

In  the  year  1907,  the  first  election  to  Parliament 
under  the  new  law  took  place.  The  Ukrainians  believed 
that  the  inauguration  of  the  new  election  law  would  open 
a  new  era  in  the  administration  of  Galicia  and  that  the 
old  methods  would  not  be  used.  They  were  mistaken. 
Not  only  were  the  old  methods  followed,  but  in  the  village 
of  Horutzko  four  men  lost  their  lives  and  nine  were 
wounded  because  they  demanded  a  new  election  owing  to 
a  fraudulent  count.  In  another  district,  the  population 
was  so  aroused  by  the  frauds  that  one  of  the  election  of- 
ficials was  attacked  (cf.  Records  of  the  Austrian  Parlia- 
ment, Lower  House,  June  27,  1907,  p.  180). 

An  interpellation  about  the  Horutzko  affair  was  again 
made    in    Parliament.     On    this    occasion    Dr.    Teophile 

* )  Referring  to  the  fact  that  the  laws  were  passed  with  the  pro- 
viso that  they  could  not  in  future  be  altered  without  the  consent  of 
three-quarters  of  the  local  Diet,  which  is  Polish  and  aristocratic  in 
majority. 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  81 

Okunevsky,  Deputy,  made  the  following  statement: 

"Mr.  Secretary  of  the  Interior: 

"I  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  Galicia  they 
began  shooting  at  the  officials.  We  do  not  live  far  from 
Russia,  and  we  may  reach  something  worse.  I  do  not 
threaten  anyone.  I  consider  it  my  duty  to  give  warning 
when  matters  go  so  far." 

Dr.  N.  Lieberman,  a  Polish  representative  of  the  So- 
cial Democratic  Party  in  Parliament,  at  a  session  on  the 
3rd  of  July  of  the  same  year,  said: 

"Once  more  I  ask  you  to  accept  our  interpellation  be- 
cause, by  rejecting  it,  you  give  us  the  right  to  rebel,  the 
right  to  employ  force,  that  the  enslaved  masses  may  get 
rid  of  their  oppressors,  the  violators  of  law.  This  is  not 
a  threat.  When  neither  the  Government  nor  Parlia- 
ment has  power  enough  to  put  the  hands  of  justice  on 
the  criminal  in  high  position, — the  Governor  of  Galicia, 
when  neither  the  Government  nor  Parliament  feels 
itself  powerful  enough  to  safeguard  the  people 
against  the  assaults  of  the  criminal  officials;  when  the 
Governor  of  Galicia  cannot  be  compelled  to  bow  his  head 
before  the  authority  of  Parliament,  then  by  this  you 
foster — I  say  it  once  more — the  spirit  and  the  right  of 
revolution"  (cf.  Records  of  the  Austrian  Parliament,  Lower 
House,  July  3,  1907,  page  560.) 

Again  the  interpellations  had  no  effect.  The  Central 
Government  proved  powerless  in  the  matter. 

However,  in  the  autumn  of  1907,  the  Central  Govern- 
ment saw  fit  to  promise  the  Ukrainian  deputies  that  it 
would  urge  the  Governor  of  Galicia  to  direct  his  subor- 
dinates to  refrain  from  the  abuses  during  elections.  This 
promise  was  made  in  view  of  the  arrangement  by  which 
the  Ukrainians  agreed  not  to  obstruct  the  business  in 
Parliament.  All  hoped  that  the  promise  would  be  carried 
out. 

It  is  already  known  how  the  Governor  disposed  of  this 
promise. 


82  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

Deputy  Tzehlinsky  in  the  speech  quoted  in  this  chapter 
amply  showed  how  the  very  next  year — 1908 — the  climax 
in  the  frauds  had  been  reached.  A  prominent  Ukrainian 
peasant  named  Marko  Kahanetz,  who  represented  his 
village  in  the  Board  of  Elections,  was  killed,  while  mak- 
ing a  protest,  by  the  gendarmes. 

Deputy  Eugen  Levitzky,  in  a  speech  made  in  Parlia- 
ment on  the  26th  of  May,  1908,  produced  an  original 
death  sentence  against  Kahanetz,  issued  by  the  Polish 
Fighting   Organization    at    Stanislavov,    dated   May   27th, 

1907,  against  the  peasant,  should  he  interfere  with  the 
elections.  He  produced  similar  death  warrants  against 
other  active  peasants  in  the  district.  These  documents 
were  widely  published  in  the  Ukrainian  press  at  the  time. 

The  excitement  and  indignation  which  followed  the  af- 
fair were  widespread ;  mass  meetings  were  organized ;  high 
mass  was  held  in  Ukrainian  churches  for  Marko  Kaha- 
netz. The  gendarmes,  however,  were  not  punished.  No 
investigation  of  the  affair  occurred,  although  an  urgent 
motion  to  that  effect  was  made.     On  the  20th  of  February, 

1908,  a  deputation  of  peasants  from  Solotvina  called  upon 
Count  Potocki,  and  in  the  course  of  the  discussion  the 
chairman  of  the  delegation  asked  the  Governor  "whether 
he  preferred  the  appointment  of  representatives  to  their 
election  and  whether  he  preferred  violence  to  law"  (cf. 
Semla  e  Vola,  Lemberg,  1908). 

It  was  then  that  the  Ukrainian  Club  in  Vienna  called 
upon  the  Prime  Minister  to  present  a  demand  that  Govern- 
or Potocki  be  dismissed  for  misconduct  in  office,  for  the 
frauds  permitted  by  him,  and  for  failure  to  punish  the 
gendarmes  and  other  officials  responsible  for  the  killing 
of  Marko  Kahanetz. 

On  the  5th  of  April,  Dr.  W.  Okhrimowich,  a  Ukrai- 
nian Deputy,  the  President  of  the  Peasants'  Co-operative 
Fire  Insurance  Company  (Dnister),  published  a  letter  in 
which  he  said  that  his  experience  in  Parliament  convinc- 
ed him  of  the  impossibility  of  accomplishing  anything 
for  Ukraine  by  parliamentary  efforts  and  that  he  there- 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  83 

fore  resigned  the  office  of  deputy  (cf.  Ukrainische  Rund- 
schau, April,  1908.) 

In  tlie  general  upheaval  which  took  place  at  that  time, 
Count  Potocki  was  shot  by  Miroslav  Sichinsky,  a  Ukrai- 
nian student. 

The  indictment  in  the  case  recognizes  the  fact  that  the 
shooting  was  due  to  the  strife  between  the  Ukrainian  peas- 
antry and  the  Polish  aristocracy,  and  also  admits  that 
the  Governor  supported  the  Russophile  agitation  in  Ga- 
licia  furthered  by  the  Russian  Government. 

This  was  quite  a  new  phase  in  the  Polish  policy.  The 
Polish  nobility  and  the  Russian  bureaucracy  have  for 
many  centuries  been  rivals  for  the  control  of  the  rich 
Ukrainian  South.  According  to  Professor  Anthony 
Bruckner* ,  the  Polish  historian,  this  rivalry  was  the  prin- 
cipal cause  of  the  downfall  of  Poland.  The  reason  why 
these  two  forces  began  in  1908  to  work  together  was  in 
a  large  degree  due  to  the  Ukrainian  democratic  move- 
ment, which  was  a  menace  to  both  of  them  equally.  Count 
Andreas  Potocki  in  this  policy  was  following  in  the  foot- 
steps of  his  ancestor  Nicholas  Potocki  who,  in  16o8,  first 
urged  the  division  of  Ukraine  between  Poland  and  Russia, 
since  it  refused  to  be  polonized.  Nothing  could  more 
bitterly  arouse  the  indignation  of  the  Ukrainian  people 
than  this  policy,  either  in  16S8  or  in  1908:  the  more  so  as 
the  same  Polish  aristocrats,  while  by  electoral  frauds 
causing  the  election  of  Pro-Russian  agitators  in  Galicia, 
falsely  denounced  the  Ukrainian  movement  to  the  Central 
Government  in  Vienna  as  hostile  to  the  Empire  and  in 
favor  of  Russia. 

In  1913,  this  new  policy  was  confirmed  by  the  semi- 
official Russian  Novoye  Vremya  (No.  13,550,  1913)  which 
said  that  the  support  was  due  to  a  secret  compact  be- 
tween the  Polish  leaders,  headed  by  Potocki,  and  the  Rus- 
sian Prime  Minister  Stolypin. 

The  activities  of  this  Governor  are  typical  of  those 
of  all  Polish  governors  in   Galicia.     They  exercised  ex- 

*)     Cf.  Pflugk-Harttung's  Weltgeschichte,  vol.  II. 


84  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

traordinary  prerogatives,  more  extensive  than  those  of  the 
Emperor  or  of  the  Central  Government,  and  were  con- 
trolled by  the  irresistible  power  of  the  Shlakhta.  The 
activities  of  the  Shlakhta  against  the  endeavors  of  the 
Ukrainians  on  behalf  of  political  equality  were  clearly  due 
to  the  efforts  to  maintain  their  economic  predominance. 

The  Ukrainian  peasantry  were  on  the  side  of  law. 
They  constantly  demanded  during  elections  and  at  other 
times  that  the  law  of  the  province  be  complied  with.  But 
the  Galician  governors  and  their  subordinates  ignored 
both  tiie  laws  and  the  constitution  of  the  land  as  well  as 
the  persistent  demands  for  their  enforcement.  These 
tactics  and  the  power  of  the  officials  made  it  impossible 
for  the  Ukrainians  to  obtain  the  redress  to  which  under 
the  laws  they  were  entitled.  In  the  last  instance  Governor 
Potocki  and  the  aristocracy  had  even  violated  their  oath 
of  office  and  of  allegiance  to  Austria,  making  common 
cause  with  official  Russia — its  enemy — in  the  endeavor  to 
crush  the  legitimate  aspirations  of  the  Ukrainians  on  both 
sides  of  the  Austro-Russian  frontier. 

The  political  struggles  between  the  two  nationalities 
have  not  ceased.  The  awakened  Ukrainians  continued 
with  more  vigor  and  perseverance  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
objects.  Being  in  a  minority  in  the  Diet,  they  adopted  the 
only  weapon  known  to  minorities  in  their  dealings  with 
obstinate  majorities — the  weapon  of  obstruction,  and  time 
and  again  the  Ukrainian  group  made  it  impossible  for  the 
Polish  majority  to  transact  any  legislative  matters  in  the 
Diet.  On  the  other  hand,  public  opinion  in  the  Empire, 
once  aroused,  was  heeded  by  the  Galician  Administration, 
and  the  electoral  frauds  have  decreased  substantially. 
For  example,  in  the  year  1913,  on  account  of  the  diminu- 
tion of  the  frauds,  the  number  of  Ukrainian  deputies  in 
the  Diet  reached  31 — instead  of  the  previous  12.  Follow- 
ing this  result,  a  compromise  has  been  finally  effected  in 
the  reform  of  the  Galician  constitution.  The  electoral  law 
has  become  more  liberal  and  democratic.    It  has  provided 


The  Misrule  of  the  Polish  Aristocracy  85 

for  the  separation  of  the  Polish  districts  from  the  Ukrai- 
nian districts  and  for  separate  elections,  and  in  that  way 
the  influence  of  the  Polish  administration  in  the  Ukrainian 
districts  has  been  reduced.     This  took  effect  in  1914. 


CHAPTER  VIL 


A  GALICIAN  GOVERNOR. 

(From  "Ukrainische  Rundschau",   No.  4,   1908.) 


The  appointment  of  Count  Andreas  Potoeki  as  Governor 
occurred  under  remarkable  circumstances.  The  governor- 
ship became  vacant  through  the  retirement  of  Count  Pi- 
ninski.  As  soon  as  the  news  about  the  proposed  appoint- 
ment of  Count  Potoeki,  who  was  then  '"Landmarschall", 
appeared,  the  Ukrainians  objected  to  the  idea  of  pro- 
moting to  the  highest  office  in  the  province  a  man  whose 
program  was  tlie  oppression  of  the  Ukrainian  people. 
Count  Potocki's  past  was  a  very  sad  one  for  the  Ukrai- 
nians. As  a  representative  to  the  Diet  he  had  many  times 
distinguished  himself  as  their  enemy.  When  in  1902  he 
became  "Landmarschall"  he  presented  his  platform  at 
a  banquet  arranged  in  his  honor  at  Bouchach.  Refer- 
ring to  the  deeds  of  one  of  his  ancestors,  who  carried  on 
war  with  the  Ukrainians,  he  promised  to  have  the  Ukrai- 
nians suppressed.  ("A  New  Berestechko  may  be  pre- 
pared for  the  Ukrainians").*  His  opening  address  in  the 
Diet  was  also  a  war  declaration  against  the  Ukrainians. 

Potocki's  appointment  was  effected  in  April.  1903,  in 
spite  of  the  energetic   protests  of  the   Ukrainian   popul- 

*)  Berestechko  is  a  \nllage  in  Volhynia  (Russian  Ukraine)  where 
during  the  Revolution  of  Khmelnitzky  in  1651  the  Ukrainian  rebels, 
betrayed  by  their  Tartar  allies,  were  destroyed  by  the  Polish  army 
under  a  Potoeki. 

86 


A  Galician  Governor  87 

ation;  in  spite  also  of  the  representations  made  by  the 
Ukrainian  section  in  Parliament,  which  demanded  the 
appointment  of  any  official  not  a  member  of  the  Polish 
aristocracy.  The  power  vested  in  him,  far  greater  than 
that  of  his  predecessors,  made  him  unrestricted  ruler 
of  Galicia.  How  powerful  Governor  Potocki  was  in  Ga- 
licia,  and  how  powerless  as  compared  with  him  was  the 
Central  Government,  is  proved  by  statements  made  by 
agents  of  the  Government  as  well  as  by  Potocki  himself. 
It  was  during  the  well-known  journey  of  Prime  Minister 
Koerber  through  Galicia  that  Governor  Potocki  arranged 
with  the  aid  of  the  police  and  the  army  a  massacre  of  the 
Ukrainians  because  of  a  demonstration  by  the  Ukrainians 
against  them.  The  omnipotence  of  Governor  Potocki  as 
compared  with  the  Government  at  Vienna  came  conspicu- 
ously to  light,  however,  only  later.  The  point  in  question 
was  the  establishment  of  a  Ukrainian  savings  bank,  the 
first  Ukrainian  institution  of  this  kind  with  governmental 
security,  for  which  the  Ukrainians  had  been  waiting  for 
years.  The  Central  Government  authorized  the  bank  to 
be  opened  in  Lemberg.  Contrary  however  to  the  wish 
of  the  Government,  Potocki  selected  Przemysl  as  a  location 
for  the  Savings  Bank,  to  which  the  Central  Govern- 
ment objected  because  there  were  already  too  many 
banks  in  that  small  town.  The  representative,  Dr.  K. 
Levitzky,  went  to  see  the  Governor  in  this  matter.  He 
received  the  following  answer:  "What  right  has  Vienna 
to  give  me  orders?"  Finally  things  went  as  Potocki 
wanted  and  not  as  the  Central  Government  had  decreed. 
Still  more  glaring  appears  Potocki's  defiance  of  the 
Government  at  Vienna  in  the  matter  of  the  governmental 
estates.  He  refused  on  general  principles  to  accept  orders 
from  the  Minister  of  Agriculture,  Count  Auersperg,  bearing 
upon  the  subject.  Auersperg  then  wrote  through  the 
medium  of  the  Prime  Minister  Von  Beck.  Even  to  the 
latter  Potocki  did  not  reply.  The  governmental  estates 
Potocki  considered  his  own  personal  dominion,  where  he 
might  rule  as  he  pleased,  without  regard  to  the  Central 


88  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

Government.  The  personnel  of  the  estates  furnished  dur- 
ing elections  the  most  zealous  agitators  for  the  Polish 
candidates.  Further  to  show  his  independence  of  the 
Central  Government  Potocki  also  defied  it  on  the 
following  occasion.  The  Central  Government  promised 
the  Ukrainian  representatives  to  induce  the  Governor 
to  issue  an  order  to  the  Galician  officials  directing  them 
to  eliminate  electoral  abuses.  Potocki  was  several  weeks 
late  in  issuing  the  order,  and  finally  published  it,  not  in 
the  official  paper  Gazeta  Lwowska,  but  in  a  small  paper, 
thus  robbing  the  circular  of  its  official  character.  Natur- 
ally corruption  continued,  as  in  olden  times. 

With  regard  to  the  negotiations  of  the  parliamentary 
section  of  Ukrainians  with  the  Government,  Potocki 
announced  that  the  Ukrainians  did  wrong  in  communic- 
ating directly  with  the  Central  Government.  To  what 
limit  his  power  reached  he  displayed  in  dealing  with  the 
Prime  Minister  Gautsch,  whose  downfall  he  finally 
caused.* 

Once  nevertheless  Potocki  had  to  give  in  to  the  Govern- 
ment. The  cause  of  this  was  the  arrest  of  one  hundred 
Ukrainian  students,  who,  as  was  generally  asserted,  were 
arrested  on  his  specific  orders.  The  Government  could 
not  allow  itself  to  be  trampled  on  in  this  manner,  and  for 
better  or  worse  had  to  set  all  the  arrested  free.  On  the 
other  hand  the  Government's  promises  resulting  from  its 
negotiations  with  the  Ukrainian  section  could  not  be  ful- 
filled, because  Potocki  did  not  wish  to  give  his  assent  to 
them.     He  was  unwilling  to  approve  even  of  such  con- 

*)  It  happened  in  1907,  when  the  Bill  for  universal  suffrage  came 
up  in  Parliament.  The  Bill  was  favored  by  the  progressive  parties, 
by  the  Prime  Minister  Gautsch,  and  by  the  Emperor.  The  Polish 
aristocracy  opposed  it.  When  the  law  finally  passed  it  contained 
provisions  favorable  to  the  aristocracy,  giving  78  seats  in  Parliament 
to  the  3.500.000  Poles  and  28  seats  to  the  3,.'n0i).000  Ukrainians.  After 
this  Count  Potocki  demanded  of  the  Empe  or  the  resignation  of  the 
Prime  Minister  Gautsch  and  the  latter  resigned.  He  was  disliked  by 
the  Galician  Governor,  having  on  the  floor  of  Parliament  remarked 
that  the  Polish  aristocrats  for  their  loyalty  to  Austria  have  been  richly 
compensated  b}'  their  absolute  rule  in  Galicia. 


A  Galician  Governor  89 

cessions  of  the  Government  to  the  Ukrainians    as  were 
agreeable  to  the  rest  of  the  Polish  aristocracy.* 

*  *  * 

His  opposition  to  the  Ukrainians  will  be  seen  from  the 
following  examples:  For  several  years  the  Ukrainians 
were  organizing  the  emigration  to  Germany  of  Ukrainian 
farm-hands  in  search  of  work.  This  emigration  was  very 
displeasing  to  the  Polish  landowners,  who  were  losing 
cheap  labor.  Potocki  therefore  resisted  all  Ukrainian  de- 
mands for  pennission  to  establish  an  emigration  em- 
ployment agency.  This  was  denied  to  the  Ukrainian 
educational  society,  "Prosvita".  The  Governor  expressed 
himself  in  the  following  manner  to  a  Ukrainian  deleg- 
ation: "I  would  rather  let  you  have  a  university  than 
an  employment  agency".  In  1904  he  illegally  ordered  all 
district  administrators  to  detain  every  Ukrainian  peasant 
emigrating  to  Germany.  Seven  hundred  peasants  were 
therefore  forcibly  held  back  and  sent  home.  Many  others 
were  refused  passports. 

After  the  Governor  had  prevented  the  opening  of  an 
employment  bureau  the  society  asked  him  to  approve 
legally  an  emigration  bureau  with  infoniiation  facilities. 
Although  there  was  already  in  existence  a  Polish 
institution  of  the  same  kind,  having  the  very  same 
by-laws,  the  Ukrainian  bureau  was  not  permitted.  Well 
known  is  Count  Potocki's  opposition  to  Ukrainian  asso- 
ciations of  volunteer  firemen.  Once  he  said  openly: 
"I  must  destroy  those  associations,"  and  a  number  of  them 
were  dissolved.  On  another  occasion  he  refused  to  issue 
a  permit  to  open  a  Ukrainian  printing  shop.  All  requests 
to  that  effect  were  categorically  denied.  The  distribution 
of  funds  for  the  relief  of  peasants  who  had  suffered  dam- 
ages from  natural  causes  was  managed  by  Potocki  ac- 
cording to  his  will  and  pleasure,  and  not  as  laid  down  by 
the  Government,  In  the  last  year  there  were  two  and 
a  half  million  crowns  assigned  for  this  purpose,  but  only 

* )     Concessions  referring  merely  to  the   establishment  of  a  Ukrai- 
nian university. 


90  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

12,000  crowns  were  distributed  among  the  peasants.  The 
rest  went  to  the  support  of  the  friends  of  the  Governor's 
party.  One  of  the  moves  in  the  direction  of  political  op- 
pression of  the  Ukrainians  was  the  support  given  by  him 
to  the  Russophiles*  at  the  elections,  an  act  through  which 
the  Ukrainians  were  weakened  and  he  himself  proved  his 
loyalty  to  Russia,  whose  subject  he  also  was,  and  where, 
in  Russian  Ukraine,  he  had  immense  possessions. 

Count  Potocki,  "the  iron  hand",  "in  appearance  a  fine, 
pleasant  gentleman,"  was  unscrupulous  and  immoderate 
as  a  political  opponent.  His  entire  period  of  administra- 
tion was  a  continuous  war  of  repression  against  the 
Ukrainians.  In  his  days  most  of  the  killings  of  Ukrainian 
peasants**  took  place;  during  his  administration  a  new 
species  of  political  chicanery  was  introduced,  namely,  the 
promulgating  of  false  reports  about  pogroms  on  Jews  and 
Poles  by  the  Ukrainians.  Such  manoeuvres  were  often 
repeated  in  Potocki's  time.  Every  time  rumors  were 
circulated  that  the  Ukrainian  peasants  were  murdering, 
burning,  and  plundering  soldiers  were  called  out  and 
arrests  made,  while  in  fact  nobody  was  ever  wronged  in 
the  slightest  degree.  But  the  reports,  once  spread,  could 
not  be  retracted.  Count  Potocki  had  no  means  for  paci- 
fying the  Ukrainian  peasants  except  soldiers  and  martial 
law.  He  threatened  to  declare  the  latter  during  the  last 
strike  of  farm  laborers,  and  when  Deputy  Olesnitzky 
called  the  attention  of  the  Governor  to  the  popular  dis- 
content on  account  of  official  abuses,  Potocki  exclaimed: 
"Do  you   threaten  me  with   a   Ukrainian   rebellion?     I'll 

*)  See  page  83. 

•*)  In  19(i6,  during  the  agitation  for  the  introduction  of  general 
suffrage,  in  the  village  of  Ivadske  in  Eastern  Galicia,  four  were  killed 
and  nine  mortally  wounded,  among  them  a  woman,  by  the  gendarmes, 
who  without  cause  were  brought  into  the  district. 

In  1907  during  the  election  to  Parliament  in  the  village  of  Horutz- 
ko  four  men  lost  their  lives  and  nine  were  wounded  because  they  de- 
manded a  new  election  owing  to  fraudulent  count. 

In  1908  during  the  election  to  the  Diet  in  the  village  of  Koro- 
petz  a  peasant  lost  his  life  because  he  stood  in  the  way  of  electoral 
frauds.  He  was  killed  by  three  gendarmes,  though  entirely  peaceable 
himself,  (cf.  Records  of  the  Austrian  Parliament,  L/Ower  House,  June 
27,   1907,  p.   180). 


A  Galician  Governor  91 

send  several  regiments  of  soldiers  and  the  Ukrainian  re- 
bellion will  come  to  an  end." 

In  this  light  Potocki  understood  his  duties  as  Governor. 
In  the  same  spirit  his  subordinates  understood  their  dut- 
ies. They  could  not  act  otherwise.  In  a  momentary  fit 
of  candor  the  District  Administrator  of  Przemysl,  Mr. 
Lanikevich,  whose  attention  to  official  abuses  had  been 
called  by  Deputy  Tzehlinsky,  said:  "Mr.  Representative, 
would  you  act  otherwise  if  you  were  in  my  position"? 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  UKRAINIAN  MOVEMENT 
IN  RUSSIA 

BY 

OTTO  HOETZSCH. 

(From  "Russland",  Berlin,   1913.) 


[Otto  Hoetzsch,  Professor  of  History,  Posen  and  Berlin.  Author: 
Die  Vereinigten  Staaten  v.  Nord  Amerika,  1913;  Beitraege  zur  Rus- 
sischen  Geschichte,  1907;  Russland,  1913]. 


It  was  manifest  during  the  debates  of  the  first  Duma 
on  the  agrarian  question  that  all  the  Ukrainian  parties 
and  representatives,  without  exception,  joined  the  Great 
Russian  Liberals  and  Socialists,  This  occurred  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  agrarian  relations  in  the  Ukraine  differ  con- 
siderably from  those  in  Russia  proper,  perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  feature  of  the  Ukraine  in  this  respect  being 
that  the  Ukrainians  have  never  possessed  the  institution 
of  the  mir.  But  the  social  antagonism  with  regard  to  the 
Ukraine  was  aggravated  also  by  the  national  antagonism 
of  the  Ukrainians  against  the  landlords  who,  almost  with- 
out exception,  are  Poles  or  Great  Russians.  As  compul- 
sory expropriation  was  liable  to  injure  the  Poles  the 
Ukrainians  were  in  favor  of  it.  That  this  opinion  had 
taken  deep  root  in  the  Ukrainian  masses  was  made  evi- 
dent by  the  result  of  the  elections  and  the  addresses  of  the 
peasant  representatives.     Were  Polish  landlordism  to  fall, 

92 


The  Ukrainian  Movement  in  Russia  93 

there  would  disappear  with  it  the  dream  of  a  "historic 
Poland,"  that  Jagellonian  Poland  which  was  to  comprise 
not  only  Lithuania  but  also  a  great  part  of  Little  Russia, 
the  part  at  least  that  lies  on  the  right  bank  of  the  River 
Dniper.  This  is  the  reason  why  the  Ukrainian  parties 
were  thoroughly  democratic  and  in  favor  of  compulsory 
expropriation.  A  coincidence  of  national  and  social  in- 
terests made  this  antagonism  stronger  and  exceedingly 
rigid,  as  was  likewise  the  case  in  White  Russia  and  Lith- 
uania. 

Anyone  travelling  through  the  Ukraine  provinces  would 
notice  little  difference  between  the  Ukrainian  race  and  the 
Great  Russian,  since  it  has  long  been  a  deliberate  policy  of 
the  Russian  government  to  minimize  this  difference.  On 
May  30th,  1876,  the  following  ukaz  was  issued: 

L  The  importation  into  Russia  of  any  Ukrainian  pub- 
lications issued  abroad  is  hereby  prohibited. 

IL  It  is  likewise  prohibited  to  print  or  publish  original 
works  or  translations  into  this  language,  with  the  ex- 
ception : 

(a)  Of  historical  documents; 

(b)  Of  works  of  fiction;  provided  that  in  the  histori- 
cal documents  the  orthography  of  the  original,  and  in  the 
works  of  fiction,  the  Russian  orthography,  are  used.  The 
permission  to  print  a  Ukrainian  book,  moreover,  will  be 
granted  only  after  the  manuscript  has  been  examined  by 
the  Supreme  Press  authorities. 

IIL  Likewise  it  is  prohibited  to  play  theatrical  per- 
formances of  any  kind,  or  to  hold  lectures,  in  the  Ukrai- 
nian language,  or  to  publish  music  with  Ukrainian  words. 

To  use  the  Ukrainian  language  was  forbidden  by  this 
regulation.  The  schools  of  all  kinds  were  to  be  exclusively 
Russian.  The  rich  Ukrainian  literature  and  the  theatre 
were  suppressed.  The  Ukrainians  became,  as  they  used 
to  call  it,  "a  people  without  a  country," — the  Ukrainian  na- 
tion simply  ceased  to  exist,  and  their  language  was  looked 
upon  as  a  corrupt  dialect  of  an  inferior  class.  Owing  to 
this  policy  in  the  matter  of  language  and  schools,  the  num- 


94  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

ber  of  illiterates  among  the  Ukrainians  nowhere  falls  be- 
low 50%,  because  the  Russian  language  is  not  easily 
mastered  by  a  Ukrainian  child  in  spite  of  the  resemblance 
between  the  languages.  This  also  explains  the  absence 
of  a  Ukrainian  educated  class  inasmuch  as  the  Ukrainian 
educated  people  are  forced  to  become  Russian  professors, 
physicians,  editors,  and  so  on.  For  this  reason  it  was 
a  very  difficult  task  for  this  nationality,  at  the  time  of  the 
outbreak  of  the  revolution,  to  secure  a  hearing,  so  little 
having  been  heard  of  it  abroad,  though  there  are  twice 
as  many  Ukrainians  as  Poles 

The  russification  of  different  nationalities  living  in  Rus- 
sia was  always  carried  on  witii  the  greatest  harshness,  but 
neither  in  Poland  nor  in  the  Baltic  provinces  had  it  gone 
so  far  as  to  prohibit  the  language.  This  happened  only  in 
the  case  of  the  Ukrainians,  though  of  all  Russia's  na- 
tionalities they  are  the  most  closely  affiliated  with  the 
Great  Russians  and  though  neither  a  separatistic  nor  a 
revolutionary  movement  at  that  time  had  afforded  any 
reason  for  a  policy  of  this  kind. 

As  we  have  said,  the  number  of  the  Ukrainians  cannot 
be  ascertained  accurately.  If  we  take  as  a  basis  the 
number  given  by  the  census  of  population,  22,300,000,  the 
present  Ukrainian  population  would  amount  to  32  million, 
occupying  almost  the  whole  of  the  provinces  of  Volhynia, 
Podolya,  Chernihov,  Kiev,  Poltava,  Ekaterinoslav,  Kherson, 
and  Kharkov,  and  considerable  parts  of  the  provinces  of 
Lublin,  Sydletz,  Horodno,  Minsk,  Bessarabia,  Tavria, 
Kursk,  Voronej,  Don,  and  Kuban. 

The  oppression  of  the  Ukrainians  in  Russia,  which  was 
a  suppression  of  culture  at  the  same  time,  resulted  in  the 
exodus  of  many  educated  Ukrainians  to  Galicia,  where 
they  enjoyed  more  freedom.  Lemberg  became  a  centre 
where  the  poems  of  Shevchenko  and  Kotliarevsky  could 
be  freely  read,  where  historical  researches  of  a  really  na- 
tional kind,  unlike  those  made  by  the  Great  Russians, 
could  be  carried  on,  where,  in  the  course  of  time,  a  kind 
of   scientific   academy   was   created   in   the    "Shevchenko 


The  Ukrainian  Movement  in  Russia  95 

Scientific  Society,"  and  where  the  political  ideal  and  aims 
were  devised  which  were  to  be  realized  first  in  Galicia, 
afterwards  in  Russia.  From  Lemberg  the  world's  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  Ukrainian  question.  Without  this 
preparatory  work,  the  influence  of  which  necessarily 
reached  over  into  Russian  Ukraine,  the  high  maturity  of 
the  movement,  which  manifested  itself  at  the  time  when 
the  revolution  lost  its  old  force,  would  have  been  im- 
possible. 

It  was  the  martyrdom  of  the  oppression  which  lasted 
for  so  many  years  that  apparently  prepared  the  ground 
for  the  movement  of  liberation  in  which  many  Ukrainian 
names  are  to  be  met  with  among  those  of  old  revolution- 
aries. The  rebellious  marines  in  the  navy  in  1905  were 
mostly  Ukrainians;  Ukrainians  were  in  the  majority  in 
the  agrarian  riots  in  the  black  earth  district,  half  of  these 
districts  being  more  or  less  Ukrainian  country. 

Owing  to  the  degree  of  emancipation  actually  won,  the 
fetters  of  the  Ukrainian  language  were  broken.  The 
ukaz  of  1876  was  never  repealed  officially,  but  the  Com- 
mittee of  Ministers  found  themselves  compelled  (o  act  in 
accordance  with  the  opinion  of  the  universities  of  Kiev 
and  Kharkov,  and  that  of  the  Russian  Scientific  Academy, 
which  in  March,  1905,  declared  the  Ukrainian  language  to 
be  an  independent  idiom  and  then  continued  as  follows: 
"What  has  been  quoted  above  has  led  the  Scientific  Aca- 
demy to  the  opinion  that  the  Little  Russian  population 
should  have  the  same  right  as  the  Great  Russian  to  use 
their  mother  tongue  in  public  life  and  in  printing." 

The  political  life  of  Ukraine  rose  very  rapidly.  The 
parties  which  until  then  were  working  in  secret  came 
forward:  a  revolutionary,  a  radical,  a  democratic,  a  na- 
tional Ukrainian  party,  corresponding  to  that  of  the  Rus- 
sian Cadets  (constitutional  democrats).  Not  less  quickly  a 
Ukrainian  press  emerged.  Although  the  press  had  to 
suffer  very  much  from  the  restriction  due  to  martial  law, 
nevertheless  in  the  autumn  of  1905  there  were  al- 
ready 34  Ukrainian  publications.     There  were  in  the  first 


^6  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

Duma  63  Ukrainian  representatives,  forty  of  whom  be- 
longed to  a  Ukrainian  parliamentary  club,  and  most  of 
them  being  from  the  provinces  of  Chernihov,  Poltava, 
Kharkov,  Kiev,  Podolya,  and  Volhynia.  The  same  was  the 
case  with  the  second  Duma. 

What,  now,  were  their  political  demands? 

The  political  aims  of  the  Ukrainians  were  obscured 
during  the  first  two  Dumas  by  the  fact  that  the  Ukrainian 
deputies  acted  together  during  the  elections  with  Cadets, 
(constitutional  democrats),  Poles,  and  Jews,  and  belonged 
to  different  parties.  But  their  aims  were  clear,  for  all 
that,  as  they  were  clearly  formulated  in  the  minds  of  the 
peasants  whose  communities  uttered  them.  These  de- 
mands were:  land  and  autonomy.  Nothing  needs  to  be 
said  about  the  first  demand.  But  autonomy  meant:  the 
negation  of  the  so-called  "historical  Poland,"  and  full 
self-government  of  the  country  within  the  Russian  feder- 
ation which  was  hoped  for.  The  seed  of  political  and 
historical  ideas  sown  by  Drahomanov  would  thus  bear 
its  fruit  in  the  fact  that  Russia  as  a  nation  is  based  on 
the  treaty  of  1654,  made  between  its  Great  Russian  and 
Little  Russian  halves,  Poland  having  nothing  to  look  for 
in  the  Ukraine,  which  though  once  conquered  by  the 
Poles  has  always  belonged  naturally  to  the  Ukrainian 
Cossacks  and  peasants.  In  accordance  with  that  theory 
the  Ukrainians  demanded  from  their  old  enemies  only 
their  old  historical  and  national  rights.  In  this  pro- 
gram the  principle  of  federalism  found  its  purest  and 
its  extreme  expression. 

The  program  with  which  Ukrainians  entered  the 
Duma  election  of  1912  best  illustrates  their  demand. 
They  asked  for:  the  control  of  the  Ukrainian  soil;  equal 
rights  for  the  Ukrainian  language  with  those  of  the  Great 
Russian,  the  privilege,  that  is  to  say,  to  have  it  used 
in  the  courts,  the  churches,  and  the  administration;  a 
change  of  the  system  robbing  the  Ukraine  for  the  benefit 
of  Russia  proper  which  had  come  to  prevail ;  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  Ukrainian  church  and  full  autonomy  of  the 


The  Ukraijmian  Movement  in  Russia  97 

administration   of   Ukraine, — all   in   accordance   with   the 
treaty  of  Pereyaslav  in  16o4. 

This  program  was  not  consistent  with  the  existence 
of  the  Russian  Empire  and  it  was  bitterly  opposed  not 
only  by  the  government  but  also  by  the  Russian  Liberals, 
who  have  always  been  strongly  in  favor  of  centralization 
and  make  concessions  to  the  demands  for  autonomy  only 
where  they  are  compelled  to  do  so,  as  in  Poland  and  Fin- 
land. Centralistic  were  the  "Union  of  Unions"  and  the 
party  of  Constitutional  Democrats  (but  not  chauvinistic) 
and  Peter  Struve's*  publication  called  'Liberation"  has 
never  acknowledged  the  justice  of  the  Ukrainian  demand 
for  autonomy.  In  1912  Struve  wrote:  "I  am  convinced 
that  beside  the  Russian  civilization  and  language  the  Little 
Russian  is  only  a  provincial  branch.  The  position  of  the 
latter  is  conceivable  only  as  a  derivation  from  the  former; 
a  change  of  the  status  quo  is  possible  only  in  this  matter 
through  a  disruption  of  the  political  and  social  body  of 
Russia."  This  was  the  opinion  of  the  Russian  Liberals 
and  many  of  the  extreme  "left."  To  ally  themselves 
with  the  revolutionaries  was  thus  the  only  course  left 
to  the  Ukrainians.  Rut  the  government  soon  wiped  out 
for  a  time  almost  the  whole  revolutionary  movement, 
and  thus  the  Ukrainians  found  themselves  without  sup- 
port, the  more  so  as  the  new  act  with  regard  to  suf- 
frage almost  entirely  disfranchised  them.  In  this  way 
it  happened  that  neither  the  third  nor  the  fourth  Duma 
included  a  single  Ukrainian  representative  and  that  the 
Ukrainian  interests  accordingly,  far  from  being  dis- 
cussed, were  suppressed  altogether.  The  growing  socie- 
ties and  the  newspapers  which  had  been  started  were 
persecuted,  the  scanty  beginnings  of  the  Ukrainian  public 
instruction  were  destroyed.  Whereas  in  1907  even  the 
Holy  Synod  had  permitted  the  Ukrainian  language  to  be 
used  in  the  clerical  seminary  for  the  province  of  Podolya, 
the  permission  was  withdrawn  in  1912. 

*)  A  prominent  leader  of  Great  Russian  Liberalism. 
7 


98  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

Nowadays  once  more,  the  superficial  observer  notices 
as  little  of  the  Ukrainian  movement  in  that  country  as  in 
pre-revolutionary  times.  Yet  the  movement  is  not  dead. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  alive  and  strengthened  by  its  strug- 
gles. Notwithstanding  all  the  restrictions  of  suffrage, 
thousands  of  Ukrainian  votes  have  been  cast  and  several 
representatives  from  the  parties  of  the  Cadets  and 
social-democrats  have  undertaken  to  defend  the  Ukrai- 
nian cause.  Milukoff,  having  protested  against  the  op- 
pression of  the  Little  Russians  in  a  way  that  showed  the 
danger  of  the  Ukrainian  movement,  said,  "not  among  us 
but  in  Austria  there  has  been  built  up  a  center  of  culture 
which  with  every  year  is  winning  more  influence  upon 
the  national  life  of  our  Ukraine." 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  RUSSIAN 
UKRAINE 

BY 

W.  DOROSGHENKO. 

(From  No.  4  of  the  "Ukrainische  Nachrichten",  Vienna). 


Political  thought  and  political  aspirations  were  not  ex- 
tinquished  in  Ukraine  after  the  rule  of  the  "Hetmans"  had 
been  abolished  and  Ukraine  was  "tamed,"  as  Catherine  II 
expressed  it.  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  have  elapsed 
since  the  abolition  of  Ukrainian  autonomy,  but  the  struggle 
for  liberty  has  been  kept  alive,  being  transmitted  from 
generation  to  generation  as  a  sacred  legacy.  Immediately 
after  the  loss  of  Ukraine's  independence,  there  were  among 
the  Ukrainian  nobles  malcontents,  who,  in  spite  of  the 
pressure  brought  upon  them,  and  in  spite  of  all  attempts 
to  gain  their  favor,  longed  for  the  old  freedom  of  Ukraine, 
and  were  even  then  dreaming  of  its  restoration.  Among 
such  "left"  (radical)  groups  of  the  nobility,  the  one  that 
delegated  Count  W.  Kapnist  as  representative  of  Ukrainian 
national  interests  to  the  European  courts  must  be  men- 
tioned in  the  first  place. 

Although  this  effort  met  with  failure,  and  although  the 
russification  of  the  Ukrainian  upper  classes  kept  pace  with 
the  gradual  general  introduction  of  Russian  methods,  the 
idea  of  freeing  Ukraine  did  not  die.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  19th  century  this  idea  was  revived  among  the  Ukrai- 

99 


100  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

nians,  who  organized  themselves  into  masonic  lodges,  and 
later  we  find  the  same  idea  in  the  secret  organizations  of 
the  Decembrists.  The  prominent  landowner  and  marshal 
of  nobility,  Lukashevich,  conceived  at  that  time  the  idea  of 
forming  a  secret  society  for  the  "deliverance  of  Ukraine." 
In  the  autumn  of  1825  the  Ukrainian  patriot  N.  Markevich 
wrote  to  the  Russian  Decembrist  K.  Rylyev:  "We  have 
never  lost  sight  of  the  history  of  the  Ukrainian  great  men, 
and  the  strength  of  our  sense  of  love  for  our  country  has 
not  diminished  in  our  hearts.  You  will  find  among  us  the 
spirit  of  Polubotok  still  alive."  The  influence  of  literature 
with  its  romantic  tendencies,  by  stimulating  the  sense  of 
nationality,  prevented  the  fading  away  of  those  ambitions 
and  furthermore  strengthened  the  national  conscious- 
ness and  helped  the  people  to  tide  over  the  difficult 
period.  The  ideas  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  19th  century 
became  later  on  the  inheritance  of  the  well-known  "Cyrillo- 
Methodic  Society"  (which  included  Shevchenko,  Kostoma- 
rov  and  others),  the  members  of  which  dreamt  of  mak- 
ing Ukraine  a  separate  unit  in  the  general  federation  of 
Slavic  states.  The  heavy  punishment  dealt  out  to  the 
"brethren"  (as  the  members  of  the  society  were  called) 
by  order  of  the  Czar  Nicholas  I  could  not  extenninate  the 
idea  of  national  freedom  from  Ukrainian  society. 

With  the  close  of  the  Crimean  War,  the  Ukrainian  na- 
tional idea  raised  its  voice  again.  Ukrainian  "commun- 
ities" sprang  up  in  the  larger  towns,  in  which  all  nation- 
ally-conscious Ukrainians  joined.  The  "communities"  of 
Petersburg  and  Kiev  made  themselves  prominent  by  the 
work  done  in  the  interests  of  the  Ukrainian  national  cause. 
They  became  for  those  days  as  it  were  nursing  and  educa- 
tional institutions  for  the  Ukrainian  nationalistic  idea. 
A  number  of  Ukrainians,  anxious  for  a  quick  dismember- 
ment of  Russia,  took  active  part  in  the  Polish  rebellion  of 
1863,  while  others  were  active  in  the  organization  of  Rus- 
sian revolutionary  parties,  especially  during  the  seventies. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  seventies,  and  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighties,  strong  radical  and  social-revolutionary  ten- 


The  Political  Parties  in  Russian  Ukraine  101 

dencies  manifested  themselves  among  the  Ukrainian 
younger  generation,  owing  partly  to  the  influence  of  the 
general  Russian  revolutionary  movement. 

But  wiiile  the  Russian  revolutionary  organizations  were 
favoring  the  idea  of  a  central  governmental  power,  the 
Ukrainian  revolutionists  were  aiming  at  the  reorganization 
of  Russia  on  a  basis  of  federation.  At  that  time  Professor 
Michael  Drahomanov  was  the  exponent  of  Ukrainian  social 
and  political  radical  thought.  An  exile,  barred  from 
Ukraine  by  the  Russian  Government,  he  acquired  every- 
where through  his  personality,  his  works  and  letters, 
a  tremendous  influence  over  Ukrainian  society  in  general, 
and  over  the  younger  generation  in  Russia  and  Galicia 
especially.  Groups  of  Ukrainian  Socialists-Federalists 
came  into  existence  among  the  students,  groups  which 
later  on  assumed  the  name  of  "Radicals,"  a  Radical  Party 
of  Galicia  being,  in  the  beginning  of  the  nineties,  founded 
through  the  direct  influence  of  the  same  Drahomanov. 
There  were  no  political  parties  at  that  time  in  Russian 
Ukraine;  there  were  only  tendencies  and  currents, 
which  organized  themselves  into  isolated  groups.  The 
first  political  party  with  a  corresponding  platform  and 
organization  was  founded  in  1900,  and  was  known  as  the 
"Ukrainian  Revolutionary  Party."  The  first  pamphlet  is- 
sued by  the  party  was  "Independent  Ukraine"  ( Samostiy- 
na  Ukraina),  in  which  the  historical  rights  of  Ukraine  to 
an  independent  existence  are  brought  out.  The  Ukrainian 
Revolutionary  Party  thereby  soon  came  into  general  favor, 
and  in  a  short  time  its  branches,  the  so-called  "free  com- 
munities," were  organized  in  all  larger  sections  of  Ukraine. 
At  the  head  of  the  party  stood  a  Central  Committee,  and 
alongside  of  this  was  the  Foreign  Committee  in  Lemberg. 
The  party  inaugurated  an  energetic  revolutionary  act- 
ivity, which  gained  for  it  a  prominent  place  in  the  general 
history  of  the  Russian  revolutionary  movement.  Suflice 
it  to  mention  here  the  peasant  riots  in  the  Government 
of  Poltava  in  1902,  a  whole  series  of  strikes,  participation 
in   the   Revolution,   etc.     The    activity   of   the    Ukrainian 


102  Ukraine's   Claim    to    Freedom 

Revolutionary  Party  was  of  immense  importance  for 
the  Ukrainian  national  movement.  It  spread  Ukrai- 
nian political  ideas  widely  among  the  masses,  it  brought 
to  the  people  the  free  Ukrainian  book  and  the  free  Ukrai- 
nian paper.  During  the  period  of  its  activity  the  people 
began  to  be  organized  and  to  make  their  first  appearance 
in  the  political  and  economic  field.  Between  1900  and 
1915  the  party  published  in  Czernowitz  and  Lemberg 
a  series  of  pamphlets  and  two  newspapers,  which  had  a 
wide  circulation  in  Russian  Ukraine.  The  party  also  in- 
jected life  into  the  older  Ukrainian  groups,  creating  by 
its  very  existence  a  spirit  of  optimism,  and  stimulating 
energy.  The  party  initiated  a  considerable  illegal  Ukrai- 
nian literature. 

While  the  membership  of  the  Ukrainian  Revolutionary 
Party  was  growing  continually,  it  underwent  an  internal 
evolution.  In  1902,  the  conservatives  of  the  party  sepa- 
rated and  formed  the  "Ukrainian  People's  Party."  This 
new  party  acquired  no  influence  worth  mentioning,  yet  by 
upholding  the  demand  for  the  political  independence  of 
Ukraine  it  contributed  in  a  great  measure  to  foster  na- 
tional consciousness  among  the  Ukrainian  intellectuals. 
The  ideology  of  the  Russian  Social  Democrats  gained  a 
strong  foothold  in  the  party  at  the  very  outset.  Its  in- 
fluence increased  in  course  of  time,  but,  adjusting  itself 
to  circumstances,  it  had  to  undergo  various  modifications. 
As  a  result  of  its  influence  there  originated  in  1905,  in  the 
very  midst  of  the  Ukrainian  Revolutionary  Party,  a  polit- 
ical organization  called  the  "Ukrainian  Social-Democratic 
Alliance"  (Spilka).  Although  this  Alliance,  conforming 
with  the  general  demands  of  the  Russian  Revolution,  paid 
little  attention  to  the  national  question,  still  it  was  a 
strictly  Ukrainian  organization,  which,  as  representative 
of  the  Ukrainian  agricultural  proletariat,  has  played  an 
important  part  in  the  revolutionary  movement  of  Ukraine. 

In  1905  the  Ukrainian  Revolutionary  Party  officially 
adopted  the  platform  of  the  Social-Democrats,  and  was 
reorganized  into  the  "Ukrainian  Social-Democratic  Work- 


The  Political  Parties  in  Russian  Ukraine  103 

ingmen's  Party."  The  first  plank  in  its  platform  was 
the  autonomy  of  Ukraine. 

In  the  same  year,  which  was  generally  marked  by  the 
commencement  of  a  vigorous  campaign  for  the  freedom 
of  Ukraine,  a  second  Ukrainian  party,  known  as  the 
"Ukrainian  Democratic  Party"  was  formed.  It  was  com- 
posed mainly  of  old  Ukrainian  patriots.  Its  program  was 
similar  to  those  of  other  European  democratic  parties. 
Among  Russian  parties  it  most  resembles  the  party  of 
"Cadets"  (Constitutional  Democrats),  in  regard  to  its  pro- 
gram and  tactics,  and  besides  it  really  has  a  close  connec- 
tion with  the  latter.  Prominent  members  of  the  Ukrai- 
nian Democratic  Party  are  at  the  same  time  on  the  leading 
committees  of  the  party  of  Cadets,  where  they  represent 
the  national  interests  of  Ukraine.  At  the  top  of  their 
program  the  Ukrainian  Democratic  party  puts  the  de- 
mand for  the  autonomy  of  Ukraine  and  the  demand  for 
the  reconstruction  of  Russia  into  a  federation  of  states. 

Closely  following  its  formation  the  Ukrainian  Democ- 
ratic Party  amalgamated  itself  with  the  Ukrainian  Rad- 
ical Party  under  the  name  of  the  "Ukrainian  Democratic 
Radical  Party."  The  Radical  Party,  or  properly  speaking 
the  radical  group,  consisted  of  radically  inclined  intel- 
lectuals, who  did  not  fully  approve  of  the  social-democ- 
ratic program  of  the  Ukrainian  Social-Democratic  Work- 
ingmen's  Party,  leaned  more  towards  the  ideology  of  the 
Russian  radical  "Narodniki"  (adherents  of  the  People's 
Party)  and  resembled  the  Russian  Party  of  the  "Popular 
Socialists",  which  was  founded  later  on.  In  1905  this 
group  published  a  series  of  pamphlets  in  Lemberg.  At 
one  time  the  policy  of  this  party  was  under  the  direct  in- 
fluence of  Drahomanov.  Aside  from  these  parties,  the 
"Union  of  Ukrainian  Progressives"  deserves  to  be  men- 
tioned. This  Union  exercises  a  powerful  influence  over 
the  lawful  cultural  life  of  Ukraine.  Both  the  Democratic 
Radical  and  the  Ukrainian  Social  Democratic  Working- 
men's  parties  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  actual  upholders  of 
the  ambitions  and  the  political  views  of  Ukrainian  society. 


104  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

Parties  of  other  tendencies  which  have  been  active  in 
Ukrainian  society  have  never  appeared  as  organized,  well- 
formed  entities,  and  have  never  gained  any  publicity.  All 
these  parties  hold  the  ideal  of  an  independent  Ukraine 
in  view,  but  in  practice  they  have  only  been  able  to  put 
forth  a  demand  for  a  more  or  less  autonomous  Ukraine, 
the  achievement  of  which  was  considered  a  stepping-stone 
on  the  way  towards  the  realization  of  their  ultimate  ideal. 

Both  of  the  above  parties  have  played  an  important  part 
in  the  political  life  of  Ukraine.  During  the  years  1905- 
1907,  a  preponderant  part  of  the  Ukrainian  nationally- 
conscious  elements  in  the  cities  and  the  country  was  organ- 
ized into  branches  of  these  two  parties.  By  utilizing  the 
relatively  slight  legal  privileges  they  possess  for  political 
activity,  both  parties  have  during  this  period  instituted 
quite  a  number  of  mass  meetings,  through  which  they 
have  succeeded  in  spreading  the  Ukrainian  national  de- 
mands among  the  masses.  Owing  to  this  circumstance 
the  Ukrainians  obtained  a  large  representation  in  the  first 
and  second  Russian  Dumas.  Even  the  newly  born  Ukrai- 
nian press  bore  the  political  aspects  of  the  two  parties, 
mainly,  however,  that  of  the  Democratic  Radical  Party. 
During  the  post-revolutionary  period  the  party  of  Ukrai- 
nian Social-Revolutionists  was  founded,  and  this  has 
adopted  the  ideology  of  the  Russian  Social-Revolutionists. 
Up  to  the  present  time  this  new  party  has  not  gained  any 
considerable  influence  in  Ukraine.  The  Ukrainian  Social- 
Revolutionists  have  also  held  out  a  demand  for  the  general 
autonomy  of  Ukraine;  their  goal,  however,  is  the  inde- 
pendence of  Ukraine  as  a  state. 

The  open  legal  activity  of  the  Ukrainian  parties  was 
brutally  suppressed  by  the  Russian  reaction  in  1907.  But 
"ideas  cannot  be  pierced  by  bayonets."  Their  activities, 
now  under  cover,  were  successfully  continued  by  the 
newly  emancipated  press,  which  remained  as  the  sole 
binding  element.  Life  did  not  stand  still.  Like  a  torrent, 
regardless  of  obstacles,  the  Ukrainian  movement  kept 
pressing  forward. 


The  Political  Parties  in  Russian  Ukraine  105 

The  years  1907-1914  have  wrought  considerable  changes 
in  Ukrainian  national  life.  The  Ukrainian  national  idea 
has  suffered  a  violent  evolution,  and  from  a  nationalistic 
point  of  view  has  been  strengthened  immensely.  A  "re- 
valuation of  all  values"  has  taken  place.  Experience  and 
the  influence  of  political  life  have  gradually  removed  all 
hopes  for  outside  adherence  and  assistance,  even  on  the 
part  of  Russian  Liberals.  Ever  stronger  has  grown  the 
conviction  that  hopes  of  this  kind  are  entirely  unfounded. 
Simultaneously  the  ranks  of  Ukrainian  patriots  have 
grown  continually.  Aside  from  the  younger  elements, 
many  russianized  Ukrainians  have  severed  their  Russian 
party  afliliations  and  returned  to  the  fold  of  Ukraine. 
Even  in  the  midst  of  the  Ukrainian  parties  themselves, 
especially  in  the  Ukrainian  Social  Democracy,  spiritual 
evolution  has  been  in  progress.  In  all  fields  of  public 
life,  of  political,  literary,  and  economic  activity,  we  see 
everywhere  alongside  of  the  representatives  of  the  old 
generation  swarms  of  young  active  Ukrainian  intellectuals, 
who  have  already  passed  through  periods  of  adherence  to 
the  school  of  the  Ukrainian  revolutionaries  and  that  of  the 
Ukrainian  Social  Democratic  Workingmen's  Party.  Ef- 
forts to  organize  and  consolidate  are  apparent  everywhere. 
The  Ukrainian  emigrants,  in  predominant  numbers,  be- 
long directly  to  the  young  intellectuals.  These  emigrants 
were  and  are  still  in  close  relation  to  the  Russian  Ukrai- 
nians, with  whom  they  are  intimately  connected  by  purely 
personal  ties  and  those  of  organizations  for  spiritual 
advancement.  Among  the  younger  generation  of  Ukrai- 
nian intellectuals  the  idea  of  founding  a  society  for  the 
liberation  of  Ukraine  originated  in  1912. 

Now,  in  the  turmoil  of  the  present  occurrences,  this 
society,  uniting  all  the  parties  working  for  the  indepen- 
dence of  Russian  Ukraine,  already  appears  as  a  serious 
national-political  factor. 


CHAPTER  X. 


MILUKOFFS  DEFENSE  OF  UKRAINIAN 
HOME  RULE 

"SHEVCHENKO  DEBATE"  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  DUMA. 

(From  "Ukrainische  Rundschau",  1914,  No.  3 — 4). 

[Paul  Milukoff,  Professor  of  History  at  the  University  of  Petrograd. 
Leader  of  the  Constitutional  Democratic  Party,  Member  of  Duma. 
Author:  History  of  Russian  Civilization;  Russia  and  its  Crisis 
(in  linglish),  1905.] 


During  the  session  of  February  24th,  1914,  an  urgent 
interpellation  to  tlie  government  was  brought  in  by  the 
Cadets  (Constitutional  Democrats)  and  the  Labor  Party, 
in  substance  as  follows:  "Is  it  known  to  the  Prime  Min- 
ister that  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  manifestly  abusing 
his  authority,  commanded  the  governors  to  annul  the  re- 
solutions of  many  cities  regarding  the  celebration  of  Shev- 
chenko,  and  that  further  he  forbade  all  the  public  meet- 
ings on  the  occasion  of  this  celebration,  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  regulation  of  the  law  about  the  right  of  assembly? 
Is  it  known  to  the  Prime  Minister  that  the  clergy  of  several 
provinces  were  directed  not  to  read  masses  for  the  late 
Shevchenko,  a  command  that  must  deeply  wound  the 
emotional  sentiments  of  all  who  are  orthodox?  What 
does  the  Prime  Minister  intend  to  do  in  order  that  the 
jubilee  of  the  poet  may  be  celebrated  and  the  masses  for 
his  soul  properly  read?" 

The  social-democratic  faction  of  the  Duma,  taking  ad- 
vantage  of  the   prohibition   to  celebrate   the   Shevchenko 

106 


Milukoff's  Defence  of  Ukrainian  Home  Rule         107 

jubilee,  brought  forward  at  the  same  time  an  interpella- 
tion about  the  prosecution  of  the  Ukrainian  movement. 

In  the  debate,  which  continued  for  several  sessions,  up- 
wards of  twenty  speakers  addressed  the  Duma. 

Prof.  Paul  Milukoff,  the  leader  of  the  Cadets,  attacked 
the  nationalistic  speakers  whose  attitude  towards  the 
Ukrainian  question  is,  in  his  opinion,  unusually  injurious 
to  the  interests  of  Russia,  and  also  the  attempt,  on  the  part 
of  the  Count  Kapnists,  to  show  that  the  Ukrainian  move- 
ment should  be  considered  as  not  a  popular  movement. 
"In  reality,"  said  he,  "we  have  here  to  do  with  a  national 
movement  the  object  of  which  is  autonomy,  the  rebuild- 
ing of  Russia  on  federalistic  lines.  In  the  same  fashion  as 
the  present  nationalistic  speakers,  Mr.  Rodzyanko,  once 
the  president  of  the  Duma,  himself  of  Ukrainian  descent, 
distinguished  between  the  people  and  the  national  move- 
ment when  he  averred  that  the  Ukrainian  people  do  not 
want  their  own  literary  language.  Before  three  days 
had  elapsed  after  this  speech  a  protest  signed  with  the 
names  of  1700  peasants  and  laborers  from  Mr.  Rodzy- 
anko's  constituency  came  to  the  Duma. 

"You  can  clearly  understand  the  significance  of  this 
fact,"  Prof.  Milukoff  continued,  "only  when  you  realize 
what  a  dangerous  undertaking  it  is  for  a  Ukrainian  vill- 
age to  manifest  its  national  character.  The  mere  obtain- 
ing of  a  Ukrainian  newspaper  is  construed  as  a  manifest- 
ation of  treacherous  disposition.  Every  subscriber  of  a 
Ukrainian  newspaper  is  closely  watched  by  the  post  office 
officials  and  no  such  subscriber  can  ever  hope  to  obtain  an 
official  position  himself.  In  spite  of  this  Ukrainian  books 
find  their  way  readily  to  the  villagers  while  Russian  books 
are  rejected.  In  the  course  of  the  18  years  of  its  exist- 
ence the  educational  Society  of  Kharkov  published  four 
million  copies  of  Russian  books  and  tried  to  distribute  them 
among  the  people  at  reduced  prices,  and  even  free  of 
charge.  But  what  was  the  result?  Not  even  18%of  them 
were  circulated  in  the  Ukraine, — the  remainder  went  to 
Siberia.     During  ten  years  of  its  existence  the  society  re- 


108  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

ceived  not  so  r.iiich  as  one  communication  from  its  circle  of 
readers.  When  afterwards  the  shackles  fettering  the 
Ukrainian  language  were  removed  for  a  short  time  Ukrai- 
nian pamphlets  on  agriculture,  by  Chikalenko,  were  circul- 
ated to  tiie  extent  of  half  a  million  copies,  the  popular 
almanacs  reached  a  circulation  of  several  hundred  thou- 
sand copies,  and  two  hundred  thousand  copies  of  Shev- 
ehenko's  poems  were  sold.  Here  a  vital  work  is  in  pro- 
gress; in  these  works  the  national  culture  is  really  being 
promoted.  Shall  I  mention  those  numerous  people's 
educational  societies  which  were  established  almost  with- 
out any  support  from  the  educated  classes  and  are  now 
mercilessly  persecuted;  shall  I  point  out  the  interest  in  the 
Ukrainian  theater  which  manifests  itself  plainly  when  in 
February,  in  weather  of  unusual  severity,  the  peasants 
march  45  versts  to  see  a  Ukrainian  play?  All  sides  of  life 
are  penetrated  by  the  national  element.  The  Russian 
army,  the  Russian  school,  the  Russian  authorities  create 
a  national  reaction  and  inflame  the  national  feeling  of  the 
Ukrainians.  At  the  same  time,  the  Ukrainian  movement 
is  thoroughly  democratic;  it  is,  so  to  say,  carried  on  by 
the  people  itself.  For  this  reason  it  is  impossible  to 
crush  it.  But  it  is  very  easy  to  set  it  on  fire  and  in  this 
way  direct  it  against  ourselves,  and  our  authorities  are 
successful  in  their  work  in  this  direction." 

Prof.  MilukofT  then  related  how  the  police  in  one  city 
ordered  the  removal  of  the  national  (blue  and  yellow) 
Ukrainian  flags  which  had  been  used  as  decoration  for 
a  children's  Christmas  tree.  The  little  separatists  con- 
cealed the  flags  which  are  so  obnoxious  to  the  state  under 
their  clothing  and  took  them  home  triumphantly,  con- 
vinced that  they  had  committed  a  great  patriotic  deed. 
Thus  the  people  are  educated  to  be  Ukrainian  patriots 
by  the  over-zealous  work  of  the  police.  Since  the  Ukrai- 
nians have  been  robbed  time  and  again  of  their  last  hope 
that  their  lot  could  be  better  under  Russia,  the  separatistic 
sentiment  is  taking  deep  roots. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


RUSSIA'S  EXPANSION  TOWARDS 
GALICIA 

(From   "Krig  och  Kultur",  by  Prof.  Gustav  Steffen,  Stockholm,  1914). 


[Gustav  F.  Steffen,  Professor  of  Economics  and  Sociology  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Gothenburg;  Member  of  the  first  chamber  of  the  Swe- 
dish Parliament.] 


Why  did  Russia  need  to  expand  in  the  direction  of  Eastern 

Galicia  ? 
In   the  January   number  of  Der  Kampf,  the   Austrian 

social-democratic  periodical,  Otto  Bauer  has  the  following 

to  say  on  this  point:* 

"In  Eastern  Galicia  the  peasant  is  a  Ukrainian,  but 
the  landed  proprietor,  the  oflicial,  and  the  burgher  are 
Poles.  As  long  as  the  peasant  remained  uneducated, 
poor,  and  weak,  a  small  Polish  minority  ruled  over  the 
Ukrainian  masses.  But  when  the  peasant's  self-con- 
sciousness awakened  and  his  economic  position  improv- 
ed, he  began  to  assert  his  national  affiliations.  The 
educated  classes  among  the  Ukrainians,  who  are  them- 
selves of  peasant  origin,  are  the  leaders  of  this  peasant 
movement.  Thus  they  state  their  national  program: 
a  Ukrainian  university,  Ukrainians  in  administrative 
public  office,  greater  influence  for  their  people  in  the  pro- 
vince as  well  as  in  the  (Austrian)  empire.    By  filibuster- 

*)  See  also   "Tiden",   No.  2,   1914,    "Polen  och  Ukrajna"    p.  4. 

109 


110  Ukraine's  Claim  to  Freedom 

ing  tactics,  they  gain  a  hearing  in  the  Diet.  The  govern- 
ment and  the  Polish  politicians  are  obliged  to  make 
concessions.  They  are  not  without  influence  even  on 
the  general  policies  of  the  whole  empire.  This  policy 
may  inconvenience  us,  for  obstruction  in  the  Diet  hind- 
ers our  activities.  And  it  may  mislead  the  energies  of 
the  peasant  movement  in  the  interests  of  the  intellectual 
classes.  Yet  it  is  a  striking  spectacle  to  behold  a  people, 
three  and  a  half  millions  in  number,  awakening  from 
a  century  of  slumber  and  developing  a  will  of  their  own, 
"The  consequences  of  this  awakening  pass  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  Austria;  they  rouse  an  echo  in  the 
great  Russian  Empire  and  influence  the  relations  be- 
tween Russia  and  Austria.  This  becomes  one  of  the 
determining  factors  in  the  European  situation.  The 
stronger  the  Ukrainian  people  become  in  Austria,  the 
more  difllcult  it  is  for  Russia  to  fight  the  Ukrainian 
movement  within  its  own  boundaries. 

"The  Russo-Austrian  enmity  produced  in  the  Ralkan 
Peninsula  becomes  more  acute  and  more  dangerous, 
owing  to  this  battle  carried  on  by  the  Ukrainians  for 
the  continuation  of  peace,  and  for  Austria's  existence 
as  a  nation.  Possibly  bloody  battlefields  may  decide 
whether  the  Russian  gendarmes  are  to  force  the  Rus- 
sian language  on  Eastern  Galicia  also,  or  whether  Rus- 
sia is  to  lose  control  of  the  Ukraine,  which  would  result 
in  a  division  of  the  Russian  people  (as  at  present  de- 
fined by  Russia)  into  two  nations.  It  is  perhaps  not 
incorrect  to  say  that  the  awakening  of  the  Galician  peas- 
ant makes  up  the  most  significant  chapter  in  the  history 
of  democracy  in  Austria." 

The  same  question  is  discussed  from  a  Russian  point  of 
view  in  an  article  written  for  the  Deutsches  Volksblatt 
(an  Austrian  Journal),  January  17,  1914,  by  L.  Voronin, 
the  Vienna  correspondent  of  a  number  of  Russian  news- 
papers. Of  this  article  the  following  is  a  paraphrase: 
"Is  Russia  to  become  a  national  state,  or  a  federation  of 
nationalities?     This  has  become  a  question  of  the  utmost 


Russia's  Expansion  Towards  Galicia  111 

importance  since  the  Revolution  of  1905.  If  Russia  should 
follow  the  example  set  in  Western  Europe,  we  may  expect 
to  behold  a  new  edition  of  Austria.  Rut  that  is  not  what 
we  want.  The  Russian  nationalism  born  after  the  Re- 
volution of  1905  asks  that  Russia  remain  a  national  state 
and  that  it  be  not  altered  into  a  federation  of  nationalities. 
To  what  extent  is  this  desire  likely  to  be  realized? 
Humanitarians  and  Liberals  declare  that  the  values  that 
determine  who  is  to  succeed  in  international  contentions 
are  moral  and  spiritual  values.  This  we  deny.  Of  what 
use  is  it  to  the  Austrian  Germans  that  they  possess  a 
higher  culture  than  all  the  other  Austrians?  If,  instead 
of  amounting  to  35%  of  the  population,  the  German  ele- 
ment in  Austria  were  65%,  it  would  be  the  ruling  power 
of  the  nation.  Austria  would  then  be  a  homogeneous 
national  state,  and  the  other  races  making  up  the  remain- 
ing 35%  would  then  be  forced  to  remain  silent,  as  is  the 
case  with  the  Alsatians  and  Poles  in  the  German  Empire. 
"An  estimate  of  the  Russian  population  that  seems  very 
reasonable  puts  it  at  175  million  inhabitants.  Of  these, 
70%,  or  120  million,  are  Russians,  White  Russians,  and 
Ukrainians  (Little  Russians).*  As  long  as  we  remain 
as  numerous  as  we  are,  Russia  remains  Russian.  But 
suppose  that,  as  a  consequence  of  revolution  or  of  a  dis- 
astrous war — and  such  things  may  happen  to  any  state 
— the  White  Russians  and  the  Ukrainians  (the  writer 
always  says  Little  Russians)  cast  off  their  Russian  affili- 
ations and  declare  themselves  a  White  Russian  and  a 
Ukrainian  nation?  For  us  that  would  mean  a  loss  of  35 
million  inhabitants;  and  then  the  Russian  element  would 
constitute  a  minority  in  the  Russian  state.  To  prevent 
this  we  must  take  steps  in  advance  to  prevent  the  Ukrai- 
nians from  deserting  the  Russian  cause.  Russian  dip- 
lomacy was  guilty  of  a  fatal  error  in  the  1772  Partition 
of  Poland.  Instead  of  Eastern  Galicia  we  should  have 
ceded  to  Austria  what  is  now  Russian  Poland.  Austria 
and  Russia  might  then  have  been  friends  and  both  profited 

*)  These  statistics  have  been  added  to  Mr.  Voronin's  article. 


112  Ukraine's   Claim    to    Freedom 

by  conditions  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  But  as  that  was 
not  the  thing  that  happened,  we  are  now  enemies.  The 
four  million  Ukrainians  in  Galicia  and  Bukovina  are  now 
often  called  the  Piedmont  of  the  Ukrainian  national  re- 
naissance. A  new  nation  is  being  born — the  Ukrainian. 
It  would  be  a  veritable  ostrich  policy  to  deny  the  danger 
that  is  thus  made  to  threaten  the  unity  of  Russia.  Evi- 
dently Austria  has  no  reason  to  care  for  our  fears,  and 
we  know  that  a  Ukrainian  and  Polish  revolution  would 
break  out  in  Galicia  if  Austria  should  favor  the  Russo- 
phile  agitation  being  carried  on  there. 

But  the  Russian  conception  of  conditions  in  Austria  is 
exactly  paralleled  by  the  Austrian  notion  of  conditions  in 
Russia.  We  cannot  stand  by  idly  when  we  behold  our 
28  million  Ukrainians  slowly  but  surely  imbibing, 
from  Galicia,  the  doctrine  that  they  are  not  Russians. 
That  is  the  kernel  of  the  Russo-Austrian  difficulty.  And 
as  there  is  absolutely  no  hope  that  either  Russia  or  Aus- 
tria will  alter  its  position,  the  state  of  affairs  is  truly 
tragical.  Under  these  circumstances  even  the  love  of 
peace  evinced  by  the  two  nations  is  likely  to  have  but 
little  weight." 

But  the  Russian  conception  of  conditions  in  Austria  is 
more  clearly  expressed  in  the  Russian  newspapers  in  the 
years  1908-1914.  Sviet,  Kiyevlanin,  Novoye  Zveno,  Kiev, 
and,  particularly,  Novoye  Vremya,  have  been  calling  for 
a  conquest  of  Galicia  for  the  last  six  years.  These 
periodicals  have  been  openly  maintaining,  particularly 
after  the  outbreak  of  the  Balkan  Crisis  in  1912,  that  the 
Eastern  Galician  Ukrainian  territory  is  a  Russian  country, 
which  7nust  be  liberated  from  the  Austrian  tyranny.  "We 
forgot,"  says  a  number  of  Novoje  Vremya  in  the  fall  of 
1912,  "when  we  began  the  fight  for  an  'All-Russian  Em- 
pire,' that  four  millions  of  Russians  are  languishing  under 
a  heavy  foreign  yoke." 

All  that  this  means  is  that  the  four  million  x\ustrian 
Rulhenians  (Little  Russians  or  Ukrainians)  should,  in  the 
interests  of  the  Russian  Pan-Slavic  movement,  be  deprived 


Russia's  Expansion  Towards  Galicia  113 

of  the  possibilities  of  working  forward  towards  a  national 
Ukrainian  culture  which  have  been  foreshadowed  under 
the  Austrian  constitution.  They  must  be  brought  under 
the  Great  Russian  sceptre,  must  be  forbidden  to  be  any- 
thing else  than  Great  Russians,  and,  like  the  Russian 
Ukrainians,  must  be  deprived  of  all  their  schools,  where 
they  teach  the  mother-tongue,  and  lose  their  comparatively 
free  press  and  their  right  of  association,  together  with  all 
the  -other  rights  of  nationality  they  have  won  in  Austria. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE  CZAR'S  RULE  IN  GALICIA,  1914 

(A  collection  of  passages  reprinted  from  American  newspapers,  1914 — 
1915,  dealing  with  the  recent  Russian  conquest  of  Galicia  and  ex- 
hibiting the  effects  of  this  conquest   upon   the  Ukrainian    population.) 


PETROGRAD,  via  London,  Wednesday.— Dispatches 
received  here  from  Lemberg  declare  that  Count  Bobrin- 
sky,  just  appointed  Russian  governor-general,  after  thank- 
ing the  Mayor  for  keeping  order  in  the  town,  said : — 

"I  think  it  necessary  to  acquaint  you  with  the  leading 
principles  of  my  policy.  I  consider  Lemberg  and  East 
Galicia  the  real  cradle  of  Great  Russia,  sinee  the  original 
population  was  Russian.  The  reorganization  will  be 
based  on  Russian  ideals.  We  will  immediately  introduce 
the  Russian  language  and  Russian  customs.  These  steps 
will  be  taken  with  the  necessary  care. 

"We  shall  at  first  limit  this  to  the  appointment  of  Rus- 
sian governors  and  other  officials.  Many  of  the  present 
executives  will  not  be  replaced.  We  shall  forbid  the  con- 
vocation of  your  legislature  during  the  war.  All  social 
and  political  organizations  must  be  discontinued,  and  may 
resume  their  activities  only  by  permission.  These  pre- 
cepts obtain  only  in  East  Galicia;  West  Galicia  will  be 
treated  differently." 

(New  York  Evening  Telegram,  September  30,   1914). 


THE   RUTHENIAN   LANGUAGE   PROHIBITED. 
BERLIN,  June  25  (via  London).— The  Berlin  Tageblatt 
has  received  a  dispatch  from  its  correspondent  at  Lemberg 

114 


The  Czar's  Rule  in  Galicia,  1914  115 

descriptive  of  the  situation  in  that  city  which  reads  as 
follows  : 

"Regular  Russian  policemen  and  cossacks  patroled  the 
city.  The  schools  were  permitted  to  stay  open  only  with 
the  express  consent  of  the  Military  Governor.  At  least 
five  hours  every  week  had  to  be  devoted  to  the  study  of 
the  Russian  language.  Only  textbooks  approved  for  use 
in  Russian  schools  were  permitted  in  Lemberg.  The  Rus- 
sian calendar  was  introduced.  Certain  prominent  resi- 
dents favorable  to  Russia  assisted  the  invaders,  and  one  of 
these,  M.  Gluszkiewicz,  a  well-known  Russophile  leader, 
was  later  rewarded  by  being  named  Mayor  of  Przemysl. 


"Emperor  Nicholas  paid  one  visit  to  the  Galician  capital 
while  it  was  under  Russian  control.  Ruthenian  books 
were  destroyed  by  the  Russian  authorities,  and  the  ex- 
change of  telegrams  and  letters  in  the  Ruthenian  language 
was  prohibited." 

(New  York  Times,  June  26,   1915.) 


ARREST  OF  PROFESSOR  HRUSHEVSKY. 

The  well-known  Ukrainian  leader  and  professor  in  the 
University  of  Lemberg,  Michael  Hrushevsky,  was  recently 
arrested  in  Kiev,  through  which  he  passed  on  his  return 
from  Venice.  Professor  Hrushevsky  lectured  on  history 
in  the  Ruthenian  (Ukrainian)  language.  He  is  a  Russian 
subject. 

(New  York  Evening  Post,  January  19,   1915. 


The  members  of  the  Russian  Academy  of  Sciences,  a 
majority  of  whom  not  long  ago  protested  against  the  op- 
pression of  the  minor  nationalities  of  Russia,  and  who  are 
still  being  attacked  by  the  "Novoye  Vremya"  for  their 
stand,  recently  attempted,  under  the  leadership  of  M. 
Shakhmatov,  to  obtain  a  commutation  of  the  sentence  of 
Professor  Hrushevsky,  a  native  of  the  Ukraine,  who  had 


H6  Ukraine's   Claim    to    Freedom 

been  condemned  to  exile  to  Siberia.  Their  efforts,  how- 
ever, proved  unavailing,  and,  according  to  the  Russian 
papers,  Professor  Hrushevsky  has  been  sent  to  Symbirsk. 

(New  York  Evening  Post,  July  10,   1915). 


RELIGIOUS   PERSECUTION. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Russian  conquerors  in 
Galicia  was  the  banishment  of  the  head  of  the  Ruthenian 
Uniate  Church,  Count  Andrew  Sheptitsky,  the  Metropol- 
itan of  Lemberg. 

*  *  * 

More  than  once,  in  the  columns  of  the  "Cerkovniya 
Vyedomosti,"  the  official  organ  of  the  Holy  Governing 
Synod,  we  have  read  violent  diatribes  against  Count  Shep- 
titsky, whom  Russians  hate  as  a  man  who  has  contributed 
greatly  to  the  strengthening  of  the  Ukrainophile  party. 

But  the  Russian  conquerors  of  Galicia  have  not  confined 
themselves  to  tearing  Count  Sheptitsky  from  his  church. 
All  the  literary  and  artistic  treasures  accumulated  by 
the  venerable  prelate,  the  precious  documents  stored  in  his 
archives,  have  been  seized.  Thus  a  large  part  of  the  his- 
torical life  of  the  Ruthenian  Uniate  Church  has  fallen  into 
Russian  hands. 

(From  an  article  by  F.  A.  Palmieri,  entitled  "Galicia  and  the  Russian 
Church",  The  Catholic  World,  New  York,  June,  1915). 


As  a  result  of  the  hostility  of  the  Russian  Archbishop 
of  Kursk,  M.  Tikhon,  the  Austrian  Archbishop,  Count 
Sheptitsky,  who  had  been  forcibly  taken  from  Lemberg  to 
Kursk,  is  no  longer  even  allowed  to  attend  church.  The 
"Russkoye  Slovo"  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  he 
is  kept  in  rigorous  confinement.  The  Commissioner  of 
Police,  who  allowed  Count  Sheptitsky  to  visit  a  monastery 
at  Snamensk  during  religious  services,  in  the  company  of 
a  guard,  was  punished  by  the  Governor  by  several  days' 
confinement  in  jail. 

(New  York  Evening  Post,  July  10,  1915). 


The  Czar's  Rule  in  Galigia,  1914  117 

PROTESTS  AGAINST  RUSSIAN  RULE  IN  GALIGIA. 

Made  by  Representatives  of  the  Ukrainians  in  the  Austrian  Parliament. 

A  protest  against  the  occupation  of  tiie  newly  seized 
territory  of  Galicia  by  the  armies  of  the  Czar  is  made 
by  Dr.  C.  Levitsky,  President  of  the  Ukrainian  Par- 
liamentary Delegation  in  Austria,  in  a  communication  to 
the  "Journal  de  Geneve": 

"Eastern  Galicia,"  he  says,  "the  northwest  of  Buko- 
vina,  and  the  northeast  of  Hungary,  are  inhabited  by 
4,200,000  Ukrainians,  (generally  known  in  this  country 
as  Ruthenians.)  More  than  30,000,000  Ukrainians  live 
in  the  Russian  Governments  (provinces)  of  Kholm,  Vol- 
hynia,  Podolia,  Kherson,  Kiev,  Chernihov,  Poltava,  Khar- 
kov, Ekaterinoslav,  Tauria,  Kuban,  and  a  part  of  the 
Governments  of  Bessarabia,  Grodno,  Minsk,  Kursk,  &c. 

"These  are  not  'Little  Russians'.  That  name  was  im- 
posed upon  them  by  the  Russian  Government  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  and  the  Ukrainians  in- 
habiting Austria  did  not  begin  to  be  called  Ruthenians 
until  the  eighteenth  century.  The  names  of  Ukraine  and 
Ukrainians  are  the  only  ones  in  actual  use  among  the 
'intellectuals'  of  the  nation  over  a  territory  of  about 
850,000  square  kilometers   (about  328,185  square  miles). 

''The  Ukrainians  are  not  a  branch  of  the  Russian 
people.  They  are  a  nation  as  independent  and  as  dilTerent 
from  the  Russians  as  the  Poles  or  the  Bulgars.  Their 
great  popular  art  and  poetry  are  entirely  original.  The 
Ruthenian  language  is  more  different  from  Russian  than 
Bohemian  is  from  Polish.  Because  of  the  Ruthenians' 
ignorance  of  Russian,  which  is  the  language  exclusively 
used  in  the  schools,  there  is  a  fearfully  high  proportion  of 
illiterates  in  the  Ukrainian  provinces  of  Russia. 

"Russia's  claims  upon  the  Ukraine  are  justified  only  in  so 
far  as  are  those  of  France  upon  Germany,  and  vice  versa. 
These  latter  states  were  once  part  of  the  empire  of 
Charlemagne,  as  Russia  and  the  Ukraine  were  of  that  of 
Vladimir  the  Great  of  Kiev.     But  Russia  claims  all  of  the 


118  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Freedom 

old  inheritance,  and  since  the  sixteenth  century  has  been 
making  a  collection  of  Russian  countries.  The  Ukrainians 
in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  formed  a  war- 
like organization  of  the  Cossacks  of  Zaporozhe,  and  in 
1648  wrested  their  independence  from  the  Poles.  Menaced 
on  every  side,  the  young  Ukrainian  State  in  1654  had  to 
join  itself  to  Russia  as  a  tributary  but  autonomous  State. 
But  Russia  betrayed  the  unsuspecting  Ukrainians.  She 
divided  the  Ukraine  with  Poland,  restricted  the  freedom 
which  had  been  accorded  to  the  country,  russified  the 
Ukrainian  Church,  which  had  before  been  independent, 
and  began  a  war  of  extermination  against  the  language, 
customs,  literature,  and  culture  of  the  Ukraine.  In  1876 
the  Czar  issued  a  decree  forbidding  the  printing  of  any 
work  in  the  Ukrainian  language — a  measure  unparalleled 
in  history,  which  enslaved  the  second  Slav  nation  for 
thirty  years. 

"Now  the  collectors  of  Russian  countries  have  arrived 
in  Eastern  Galicia  as  its  deliverers.  For  the  Ukrainians  of 
Galicia  the  Russian  occupation  is  no  doubt  a  liberation, — 
only  from  their  national  and  political  life.  They  are  con- 
demned by  the  Russians  to  national  death.  The  Austrian 
Government  has,  as  a  matter  of  law,  accorded  to  Ukrai- 
nians in  Galicia  the  same  guarantees  as  other  Austrian 
nationalities.  But  in  fact  they  have  been  oppressed  by  the 
more  powerful  Poles  and  have  been  hampered  in  their 
development.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  the  Ukrainians  in 
Galicia  have  been  able  to  maintain  their  language  in  official 
usage,  in  the  church,  in  the  schools,  and  in  the  university. 

"The  Russian  invasion  of  Galicia  destroyed  at  a  blow 
all  this  work  of  many  years.  The  Ukrainian  language  has 
been  forbidden  as  an  official  medium  of  communication 
and  in  the  services  of  the  church  and  in  the  schools.  All 
the  Ukrainian  newspapers  in  Galicia  have  been  suppressed, 
the  libraries  destroyed,  the  Ukrainian  books  belonging 
to  individuals  confiscated,  and  the  collections  of  the  mu- 
seums sent  to  Russia.     AH   Ukrainian   associations   have 


The  Czar's  Rule  in  Galicia,  1914  119 

been  dissolved.     Hundreds  of  Galician  notables  of  Ukrai- 
nian nationality  have  been  sent  to  Siberia. 

"The  United  Greek  Church,  to  which  for  more  than 
two  centuries  all  the  Ukrainians  of  Eastern  Galicia  have 
belonged— which  has  become  a  national  church — is  now 
persecuted  in  every  way.  Its  head,  the  Metropolitan 
Archbishop,  Count  Andrew  Sheptitsky,  has  been  taken 
into  the  interior  of  Russia ;  many  priests  have  been  exiled, 
the  people  terrorized,  and  in  their  half-famished  state 
converted  by  the  aid  of  threats  and  promises  by  the  Or- 
thodox popes  imported  from  Russia.  In  the  United  Greek 
and  Catholic  churches  Orthodox  masses  are  celebrated  in 
accordance  with  the  precept  and  example  of  Eulogius, 
Bishop  of  Volhynia,  the  celebrated  proselytizer.  Now 
they  are  beginning  to  transform  by  force  the  Greek- 
Catholic  churches  into  Orthodox,  because,  they  say,  they 
were  Orthodox  two  or  three  hundred  years  ago  and  ought 
to  become  so  again. 

"The  introduction  of  Russian  Orthodoxy,  with  its  Rus- 
sian sermons  which  are  impossible  of  comprehension  by 
the  people,  with  the  interdict  of  the  mother  tongue  even  in 
converse  with  God— is  this  really  synonymous  with  'the 
return  to  the  religion  of  our  fathers?'  " 

(New  York  Times,  May  22,  1915). 


[The  effect  of  the  Russian  invasion  of  Galicia  upon  the  Jews 
and  the  destructive  persecution  resulting  in  wholesale  massacres  of 
the  race  are  well  known.  The  editors  hope  that  those  directly  inte- 
rested  in  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews  in  Eastern  Europe  will  present 
their  cause  to  the  civilized  world  in  a  substantial  publication.  J 


CONCLUSION 


From  the  short  review  of  the  history  of  the  Ukrainians 
and  their  movements  in  modern  times,  described  in  the 
foregoing  pages,  it  is  manifest  that  tlieir  ultimate  goal  is 
the  establishment  of  an  independent  Ukrainian  State 
which  would  comprise  the  Ukrainians  now  inhabiting  the 
countries  of  Eastern  Europe.  But  realizing  that  this 
ultimate  aim  may  not  be  accomplished  in  the  near  future 
and  not  unmindful  of  present-day  conditions,  which  pre- 
sent problems  of  immediate  importance,  they  demand  that 
in  Austria-Hungary  the  Ukrainian  territory  be  organized 
into  a  self-governed  province  on  federal  lines  where  the 
Ukrainian  population,  not  dominated  by  the  Poles  or  their 
aristocracy,  shall  solve  its  own  national  and  economic 
problems.  They  demand  also  that  the  Russian  Ukraine, 
in  fulfilment  of  the  treaty  of  Perejaslaw,  which  is  still 
on  the  Statute  Books  of  Russia  and  has  not  been  abrogated, 
be  granted  autonomy. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Ukrainians  demand  that 
their  language  be  used  not  only  in  educational  and  relig- 
ious matters  but  also  in  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial 
institutions,  since  only  by  this  means  will  they  be  in  a 
position  to  achieve  and  enjoy  real  democracy. 

The  Ukrainians  hope  that  the  other  submerged  national- 
ities in  Europe  will  succeed  in  the  attainment  of  similar 
aims  and  objects  in  their  march  towards  the  achievement 
of  that  fuller  national  life  without  which  constant  inter- 
racial struggles  must  in  the  future  become  even  more 
frequent  than  in  the  past.  Only  when  all  nations  are  free 
and  none  oppressed  will  it  be  possible  for  them  to  meet 
in  a  generous  and  active  co-operation. 

120 


APPENDIX 


I.  A  BRITISH  CONCEPTION  OF  GALICIA. 

[From  "Austria  Hungary",  by  Geoffrey  Drage,  M.  P.  Author  of  Cam- 
bridge Modern  History,  vol.   XI,   sections  on  Russia.] 


The  Poles  are  a  race  divided  by  a  sharp  cleavage  be- 
tween noble  and  peasant. 

In  Galicia,  the  middle  class  is  non-existent,  their  place 
being  filled  by  the  Jews.  The  nobles  and  the  peasants 
are  on  the  worst  possible  terms  with  one  another.  The 
former  are  oppressive  and  selfish:  the  latter  are  sunk  in 
physical  and  moral  degradation,  a  state  of  which  they  are 
conscious,  but  which  they  attribute  to  their  lords. 

The  Ruthenians  again,  who  are  in  fact  the  Little  Rus- 
sians, and  frequently  fellow-peasants  to  the  Poles,  under 
Polish  landlords,  are  characterized  by  a  natural  capacity 
and  manliness  in  spite  of  a  backwardness  and  poverty  in 
their  case  largely  due  to  the  minute  subdivision  of  their 
properties. 


II.   A  FRENCH  CONCEPTION  OF  GALICIA. 

[From  "Noblesse  polonaise  et  paysan  ruthenes",  by  Maurice  Lair;  Anna- 
les  des  sciences  politiques,  1903,  1904,  pages  553,  702]. 


The  Ukrainians,  or  Little  Russians,  have  long  occupied 
the  Eastern  part  of  Galicia,  Volhynia,  Ukraine,  and  a  part 
of  Lithuania.  Overrun  at  times  by  several  states,  ravaged 
by  the  Tartars,  an  independent  kingdom  in  the  14th  cen- 

121 


122  Ukraine's    Claim    to    Fpeedom 

tury,  these  provinces  finally  succumbed  to  the  Polish  yoke. 
In  1648  the  hetman  of  the  Ukrainian  cossacks,  Khmel- 
nitzky,  finally  succeeded  in  shaking  off  this  yoke.  But 
the  Ukrainians  gained  nothing  except  a  change  of  masters. 
In  1654  Ukraine,  Podolya,  and  Volhynia  recognized  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Czar  of  Russia,  while  the  Ukrainians 
of  Galicia  remained  by  themselves,  annexed  to  Poland. 
They  were  massed  with  these  provinces  under  the  sceptre 
of  Maria  Theresa,  in  1772,  and  later  on  under  that  of 
Joseph  II  of  Austro-Hungary. 

An  Austrian  province,  but  a  Slavic  country,  Galicia  is 
governed  by  an  aristocracy  of  the  Polish  race,  which  is 
true  to  the  memories  of  the  great  disrupted  fatherland. 
To  a  great  extent,  this  province  is  inhabited  by  the  Ukrai- 
nians, or  Little  Russians,  of  different  origin  from  the 
Poles,  of  other  traditions,  and  of  a  lower  social  scale. 

By  all  possible  means,  the  Polish  nobility,  the  "Shlakh- 
ta,"  tries  hard  to  transform  this  province  into  a  strong- 
hold of  the  Yagello  idea.  The  Poles  still  dream  of  the 
idea  of  restoring  their  ancient  kingdom,  extending  from 
the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea,  encircling,  together  with  the 
Polish  provinces  proper,  the  eastern  part  of  Prussia  and 
the  Ukraine  as  well. 


III.    THE  UKRAINIANS  OF  GALICIA. 

[From  "A  Lecture  Delivered  on  Ukrainian  History  and  Present-Day 
Political  Problems",  by  Bedwin  Sands  (George  Raffalovich);  pub- 
lished by  Francis  Griffiths,  L/ondon,   1914]. 


As  recently  as  1897  barely  twenty  great  landowners 
were  the  political  and  economic  masters  of  Galicia.  The 
Polish  nobility  could  boast  once  that  it  alone  upheld  the 
loyalist  and  national  ideals. 

For  thirty  years  the  Poles  and  the  Ukrainians  were 
bitterly  antagonistic,  and  the  few  Ukrainians  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  were  divided.  The  Poles  ruled  in  the 
name  of  the  whole  province.     To  them  belonged  every- 


Appendix  123 

thing  that  was  not  Ukrainian.  There  was  no  third  party. 
There  was  a  time  when  the  leader  of  the  Polish  Club  in 
Vienna  could  proudly  assert:  "When  I  speak,  I  speak 
for  the  whole  of  Galicia."  Now  the  Ukrainians  have 
appeared  in  the  field.  They  are  a  much  sought-after 
article  in  the  Polish  market. 

It  is  also  certain  that  the  object  of  the  Young  Ruthen- 
ians  is  solely  and  simply  to  regain  their  independence  and 
free  their  brothers  from  the  oppression  of  the  stupid  and 
cruel  (more  stupid  than  cruel)  bureaucracy  from  Peters- 
burg. Ukrainians  have,  comparatively  speaking,  less 
members  in  the  Austrian  Parliament  than  any  other  na- 
tionality in  Austria.  There  has  been  an  improvement,  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that,  in  proportion,  they  are  not  repre- 
sented to  the  same  extent  as  the  other  races  of  the  Empire. 
When  they  obtain  an  equal  system  of  representation  with 
the  others,  the  Ukrainians  will  soon  become  the  most  im- 
portant race  in  the  country. 

Since  their  political  and  economic  rights  have  been 
flouted  every  day  by  the  Poles,  the  Ukrainians  have  re- 
sorted to  obstruction  in  the  Galician  Diet.  For  some  years 
now  no  business  of  any  importance  has  been  transacted 
there.  At  the  time  of  writing  (November,  1913),  the 
Ukrainians  have  carried  these  methods  into  the  Austrian 
Reichsrath.  There  is  danger,  of  course,  of  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Commission  of  Administration  or  a  military 
governorship  which  would  suspend  the  autonomy  of  Ga- 
licia. Personally,  I  am  convinced  that  any  regime  would 
be  better  than  the  present  one  for  the  Ukrainians.  A 
perpetual  minority  is  useless  in  a  Diet  where  there  are 
only  two  forces  present,  and  the  ruling  element  refuses 
to  give  up  any  of  its  unjustifiable  privileges. 


124  Ukraine's   Claim    to    Freedom 

IV.  A  BRITISH  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  RACIAL 
PROBLEM  IN  AUSTRIA. 

rXhe  quoted  passages  iu  this  note  are  taken  from  "The  Round  Table", 
a  semi-oflBcial  political  quarterly  published  in  Ivondon,  December,  1914]. 


Austria  is  composed  of  eight  very  different  racial  terri- 
tories; Austria  is  not  a  nation  but  a  federation  of  nations 
each  of  which  has  its  history  and  hopes,  its  literature  and 
ideals  and  culture. 

Since  no  nationality  in  Austria  is  great  and  strong 
enough  to  assimilate  and  absolutely  rule  all  others,  self- 
government  was  granted  to  the  Poles  in  Western  and 
Eastern  Galicia;  the  Czechs  in  Bohemia  have  won  nearly 
as  much  autonomy,  and  the  other  Slavonic  (Ruthenians  and 
Slovenes)  and  Latin  nationalities  (Italians  and  Rouma- 
nians) have  been  well  on  the  way  toward  winning  it. 
"While  the  waves  of  chauvinism  were  beating  higher  and 
higher  in  Hungary,  Austria  has  been  making  steady  pro- 
gress toward  the  ideal  of  racial  toleration".  "A  whole 
school  of  political  theory  has  grown  up  on  the  vexed  ques- 
tion of  racial  minorities  and  their  representation."* 

"There  has  been  a  growing  inclination  to  make  Austria 
the  centre  of  experiments  which,  if  successful,  might  have 
transformed  the  whole  problem  of  nationalism  in  Europe." 

There  actually  has  been  a  question  of  a  Federation  of 
Middle  European  nationalities  and  their  realization  of  an 
equal  liberty  for  all  nationalities,  whether  they  were  great 
or  small.  That  has  been  one  of  the  most  important 
European  problems.  For  an  Austrian  federation  of  eight 
free  nationalities,  strong  forces  have  been  working  in  Aus- 
tria: the  Social  Democratic  party,  and  the  oppressed  na- 
tionalities. 

But  the  opponents,  viz.,  the  ruling  classes  of  those  na- 
tionalities (German,  Polish,  and  Czechish)  which  have  not 
only  enjoyed  self-government,  but  also  the  right  to  govern 

*)   The  most    prominent   works   being    those    of    Rudolf   Springer 
(Dr.  Carl  Renner),  Aurel  Popovici,   Otto    Bauer,    and    Professor  Sam- 


Appendix  12S 

other  smaller  races,  have  been  stronger.  In  1907,  when 
Austria  had  received  universal  suffrage,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  give  in  to  some  extent.  It  was  apparent  that 
the  Austrian  problem  could  be  solved  only  by  a  further 
extension  of  equal  political  rights. 

A  similar  task  of  uniting  different  racial  territories  into 
a  federation  of  free  states  has  been  solved  only  by  demo- 
cratic Switzerland.  Austria,  ruled  by  bureaucracy  and 
feudal  landlords,  could  not  do  it,  though  the  principles  of 
a  federation  of  equal  nationalities  were  recognized  by  the 
Austrian  Constitution  as  the  goal  of  Austria.  Section  19 
of  this  Constitution  runs  as  follows:  "All  races  of  the 
State  enjoy  equal  rights  and  every  race  has  an  inviolable 
right  to  assert  its  nationality  and  to  cultivate  its  language. 
The  equal  rights  of  all  languages  of  the  country  in  school, 
office  and  public  life,  are  recognized  by  the  State." 

Austrian  practice  however  has  been  as  far  from  the 
Austrian  theory  of  Government  as  the  Russian  practice 
from  the  Austrian  practice.  This  is  well  shown  by  the 
example  of  the  Ukrainians.  In  Austria,  according  to 
theory,  they  should  already  possess  home  rule;  in  practice, 
they  have  a  chance  to  fight  for  it.  In  Russia  they  possess, 
neither. 


LITERATURE  ON  THE  OKRii  QUESTION, 

[Most  of  these  books  are  to  be  obtained  in  the  New  York  Public  Library]. 

ENGLISH. 
£lisee  Reclus:   Universal   Geography.     Vol.   I.   pp.   269— 

317;     379—384.  .  W     ,       T  U         . 

Prof   Alfred  Rambaud :  History  of  Russia.  Vol.  i,  chapters 

XX,  XXI,  XXII.  London  1879. 
N.  Bilashevsky :  Peasant  Art  in  the  Ukraine.  "The  Studio", 

Special  Autumn  Number.  London,  1912. 
Steveni,  W.  Barnes :  Things  Seen  in  Russia.    Chap.    Little 

Russia,  the  Blessed.  Button  &  Co.  New  York,  1913. 
B.   Sands:   Ukraine.    Francis   Grifhths,   34,   Maiden    Lane, 

Strand,  London,  W.  C,  1914. 
Yaroslav    Fedortchouk:    Memorandum   on   the    Ukrainian 

Question    in    its    National    Aspect.    Francis    Griffiths. 

London,  1914. 

FRENCH. 

£lisee  Reclus:  Geographic  Universelle.  V,  pp.  442—558. 
Les  annales  des  nationalites.  Bulletin  de  I'Union  des 
nationalites.  Numeros  consacres  a  I'etude  de  1'  U- 
kraine,  41,  Boulevard  des  Batignolles,  Pans. 

R.  Sembratovycz :  Le  Tsarisme  et  1'  Ukraine.  Paris. 

Prof.  M.  Hrushevsky:  Le  Probleme  de  1'  Ukraine.  Revue 
politique  Internationale,  1914,  PP-  289—328.  Lausanne, 

^914. 
Maurice  Lair:  En  Galicie,  Noblesse  Polonaise  et  Paysans 

Ruthenes.  B.  Annales  des  sci.  polit.  v.  18.  p.  554— 57^, 

707—717;  v.  19.  p.  185.  Paris  1903— 1904. 
Yaroslav  Fedortchouk:  Le  reveil  national  des  Ukrainiens. 

Paris,  Bureau  du  Cercle  des  Ukrainiens,  1912. 


—    I 


II  - 


GERMAN. 


Ludwig  Kulczycki :  Geschichte  der  russischen  Revolution. 
Verlag  Friedrich  Andreas  Perthes  S.-G.  Gotha  1910 — 
1914.  Erster  Teil.  Siebentes  Kapitel.  VII.  Zweiter 
Teil.  Drittes  Kapitel.  V.  Zweiter  Teil.  Fuenftes 
Kapitel.    III.   Dritter   Teil.    Siebentes    Kapitel   XXIV. 

Helmolt:  Weltgeschlchte.  Band  5.  Abteilung:  Besonders 
pp.  538 — 549.  Bibliographisches  Inst.  Leipzig  und 
Wien  1915. 

Brockhaus'  Konversations-lexikon.  1902.  Band  X.  Klein- 
russen.  Kleinrussische   Literatiir. 

Russen  ueber  Russland.  Kin  Sammelwerk.  Literarische 
Anstalt :  Ruetten  und  Loening,  Frankfurt  am  Main 
1906.  Cap.  "Die  Kleinrussen". 

Prof.  Otto  Hoetzsch :  Russland.  Cap.  Die  Ukrainische 
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B.  Jaworskv  j :  Das  Urtell  der  europaeischen  Kulturwelt 
ueber  den  Ukas  von  1876,  (Durch  welchen  die  u- 
krainische  Literatur  im  russischen  Reiche  verboten 
wurde).  Wien  1905. 

Kuschnir  und  Popowytsch :  Taras  Schewtschenko,  der 
groesste  Dichter  der  Ukraine.  Wien  1914. 

R.  Sembratowycz :  Das  Zarentum  im  Kampfe  mit  der 
Zivilization.  Frankfurt   1905. 

J.  Romanczuk :  Die  Ruthenen  und  ihrc  Gegner  in  Galizien. 
Wien  1902. 

Karl  Leuthner:  Das  Ende  der  polnischen  Staatsidec.  (Der 
Verfasser  meint  ein  polnischer  Staat,  der  auch  Li- 
thauen,  Bjelo-Rusj  und  Ukraine  inbegrifTe,  lasse  sich 
nicht  mehr  denken.  Sozialistische  Monatshefte.  Stutt- 
gart 1908,  Heft  10. 

Dr.  Stephan  Rudnyzky:  Ukraine  und  die  Ukrainer. 
Druck :  "Vorwaerts".  Wien  V.  Rechte  Wollzeile  97. 
Wien  1914. 


—   Ill    — 

George  Cleinow :  Das  Problem  der  Ukraina.  Die  Grenz- 
boten  (nr.  45).  Zeitschrift  fuer  Politik.  Lit.  und 
Kunst  1914,  II.  November.  Berlin  S,  W.  11.  Tem- 
pelhofer  Ufer  35  a. 

Prof.  ?\Iichael  Hruschewskyj :  Ein  tJberblick  der  Geschichte 
der  Ukraina.  Wien,  1914. 

Prof.  Michael  Hruschewskyj :  Die  ukrainische  Frage  in 
historischer   Entwicklung.   Wien,   1915. 

Dr.  Eugen  Lewicky :  Die  Ukraine  der  Lebensnerv  Russ- 
lands.  Deutsche  Verlags-Anstalt,  Stuttgart  und  Ber- 
lin, 1915. 

Dr.  L.  Cehelskyj :  Der  Krieg,  die  Ukraina  und  die  Balkan- 
staaten,  Verlag  des  Bundes  zur  Befreiung  der  Ukraina. 
Wien,  1915. 

D.  Donzow :  Die  ukrain'.sche  Staatsidee  und  der  Krieg 
gegen  Russland.  Berlin,   191 5. 

SWEDISH. 

Prof.    Harald    Hjaerne:    Oestanifran.     Cap.    Den    lillryska 

nationalitetsroerelsens    ursprung     (1879).     Hugo    Ge- 

bers  foerlag,  Stockholm  1905. 
Prof.    Gustaf  Stefifen :   Krig   och   kultur.    Cap.    HI.   9,    10. 

Albert  Bonniers  foerlag.  Stockholm  1914. 
Alfred    Jensen :    Ukrajnas    nationalskad.    Finsk    Tidskrift 

H.  V.  T.  LXH.  Helsingfors. 
Emil  Reviuk :  Polen  och  Ukrajna.  Tiden  No.  2,  1914. 

NORWEGIAN. 

Bjoernstjerne  Bjoernson :  Artikler  och  taler,  B.  II.  Utgivet 
Chr.  Collin.    Christiania   1913. 

POLISH. 

Leon  Wasilewski :  Ukraina  i  sprawa  ukraiiiska.    Wydaw- 

nictwo  "Ksi^zka",  Krakow  191 1. 
Ludwig  Kulczycki:   Kwestya  Polsko-Ruska.    1912    (1913). 
Waclaw  Lipinski :  Z  dziejow  Ukrainy.  Ksi^ga  pamiatkowa 

ku  czci  Wlodzimierza  Antonowicza,   Paulina  Swi^cic- 

kiego  i  Tadeusza  Rylskiego,  wydana  staraniem  dr.  J. 

Jurkiewicza,  Fr.  Wolskiej,   Ludw.  Siedleckiego  i  Wa- 

ciawa  Lipinskiego.  Krakow,  1913.  Ksieg.  D.  E.  Fried- 

leina. 
Waclaw  Lipinski :  Szlachta  na  Ukrainie.  Udzia-l  jej  w  zy- 

ciu  narodu  na  tie  jego  dziejow.  Krakow,  1909. 


—     IV     — 

RUSSIAN. 

npo$.  M.  FpymeBCKift :  H;i;iiocTpiipOBaHHaK  HCTopia  YKpa- 
HHBi.  IIs^.  "npocBimenie".  C.  nexepdyprt,  1913. 

ITpo^.  Mux.  rpymcBCKifi :  OcBo6o^;^eHie  Pocin  h  yKpa- 
HHCKiH  BOnpocT..  Cn6.,  1907. 

M.    ^paroMaHOB-B :     Co6paHie    nojiHTmecKHxi,    conuutmA. 

ToMt  I.  I.  HcTopHHCCKa^i  Ilojibma  h  BejinKopyccKan  /i;e- 
MOKpaxiH.  2.  OnuT-B  yicpaHHCKOtt  nojrHTHKo-coD;iajiBHOfl 
nporpaMMH.  Societe  nouvelle  de  librairie  et  d'edition, 
Paris,  1905. 

B.  rpHH^CHKo:  Ha  6e3npocBiTHOMT>  nyxn,    (Odi.  yKpann- 

CKOH  uiKOJii).  IvicBt,  1907. 

M.  CjiaBKHCKifi :  yKpaHHu^Bi  B  ABCxpo-BcHrpiH.  BicXHHKt 
EBponu,  1915,  I.,  p.  336. 

ITexpL  CxpyBe :  05mepyccKa^  Kyjitxypa  h  yKpaHHCKiii 
napxHicyjinpiiSM.   PyccKaa  Mlicjib,   1912,  I.,  p.  65. 

IIpo^.  MapiiiHT.  3;i;3ixoBCKiH :  UojinKvi  h  ynpaHHo^HjiB- 
cxBO.  MocKOBCKifi  EHceHCfli.nbHHK'B,  1908,  A^   17,  p.  27. 

npo(|).  Mux.  rpymeBCKin :  Kt.  no^rtCKO-yKpaHHCKHMi.  oxho- 
meHiHMi>  FajiHi^in.  KieBCican  CxapHHa,  1905,  iiojiB- 
asrycxT,,  p.   174. 

C.  E(J)peMOB'B :    H3T,   o6ii](ecxBeHHOH    2ch3hh    Ha   yKpaHHi. 

PyccKoe  BoraxcxBO,  1908,  VII.,  p.  17. 

KicBCKaa  CxapHHa.  yKpaHHCKiit  BonpocB  bt.  ero  Hcxopme- 
CKOMt  ocBiiu,eHiH.  KieBt,  1905  (v.  90 — 91,  p.  143 — 172). 

Ilexpo  0/i,HHeii,b :  Kt.  Bonpocy  o6i>  yKpaHHCKOMx.  napo^^HH- 
Hecxsi.  KicBCKaa  CxapHHa,   1906,  iiojib-aBrycxt,  p.  338. 

B.  Mhkoxhh-b  :  OiepKH  coi^Ujibhoh  Hcxopin  Majiopoccin. 
PyccKoe  BoraxcxBO,  1912,  VIII.,  p.  149;  1912,  IX.,  p. 
100;  1912,  X.,  p.  76;  1912,  XI.,  p.  185;  1913,  IX.,  p. 
192;  1913,  X.,  p.  229;  1913,  XL,  p.  204;  1913,  XII., 
p.  206. 

M.  IlexpHK'B :  Hxo  xaKoe  yKpaHH0(|)H.;itcxBO.  PyccKoe  Bo- 
raxcxBO,  1881,  XL,  p.  93. 


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